If you love oddball sets, (and I think the majority of us - set collectors, anyway - do) then the 1987 Hygrade All-Time Greats is right up your alley. It's a green bordered, 114 card set with some orange promos, and other oddball inserts. And there are tons of variations. Mostly hat logos cropped out of the front photos, with a few notable exceptions.
When my friend Stuart and I first completed this set, there were 24 pairs of variants with a third Duke Snider, making 49 cards in the Error/Variation list.
The cropped pairs included Banks, Berra, Clemente, Cobb, Dickey, DiMaggio, Feller, Ford (w/jersey), Foxx, Gehrig, Grove, Hubbell, Kiner, Mays, Musial, BrooksR, JackieR, Ruth, Traynor (jersey), Waner, and Ted Williams.
As I mentioned before, Duke Snider has two of the same shot where his hat logo is cropped out, plus a third one with a different photo. (With the new Blogger, I can't make these images the same size. Stupid.)
Jim Kaat has pictures in two different uniforms. The backs have different writeups.
The most unique variant is also the most prestigious player - Mickey Mantle. He's got two completely different photos too.
Recently, we discovered that there had been two more additions to the list on the Database.
Tris Speaker's photo framed so his hat touches the border, even though it doesn't hide a logo. (Oops, I reversed them in this image. But you get the idea.)
And Frankie Frisch has a version that doesn't have the Cardinals logo across his chest. I luckily had the logo version in my set and three extra of those without. Can't believe I didn't notice the difference.
And I suspect there may be more. A closer look at some of my dupes finds that there are subtle differences even when they don't hide the insignia...
Check out the hat logo. It's not a big difference, but the C on his cap is just off the top border in the first card, and just behind it in the second. A closer view:
There are subtle changes in more of the Hygrades. I think you may be able to make a whole set of A & B versions really.
Kind of amazing, a 33 year old oddball set that keeps evolving. That's why I love sets like this.
I've added a few of these to my collection over the years, but had no clue about the variations until today. Thanks for sharing this info.
ReplyDeleteNew blogger sucks. Been having photo issues myself.
DeleteNow I'm confused, instead of no thumbnail picture, it now put up the 5th one?
DeleteThe most prized card in my collection is an autographed orange border Hygrade of Mickey Mantle. My parents took me to a card show where he was signing, and that was the only card of his I had at the time.
ReplyDeleteThis set makes me tired.
ReplyDeleteI knew about the different photos. The different cropping? Well, now I have another job to do.
Love this set. I'd been assembling this with no knowledge of the variations. I began discovering these on my own and was quite proud of myself for actually noticing.
ReplyDelete