Skip to main content

Errer Cards: Reverse Negative


The 1957 Hank Aaron Topps card #20 is probably the most famous reverse negative card out there. A right-handed batter shown batting left handed. It says right on the back "Hammerin' Hank was the Top Batter in the National League in 1956." You'd think someone at Topps would have caught this, but I don't believe they ever issued a corrected version. Oh well, all the better for collectors.


I picked up this Aaron card on ebay last year for about $30, which I thought was a good deal. I'd seen it listed for twice that in almost all cases. I'm not much of a grader, but given the year this card looks to me to be in good to very good condition. It has creases from left to right, one right through the Brave's patch, and the other just above the lettering, and those only show on the card front. It's off centered and has slightly rounded corners. But all in all it's a nice looking card to me and that's all that matters, especially at that price. BTW, that's the most I've spent on any card, ever, except for Pete Rose' 1964 Topps card.

Here's a card of a right-handed batter shown batting left handed, but it's not a reverse negative.


Leave it you Ueck to fool a photographer! That's Uecker's 1965 Topps card #519.


That's Larry Haney's 1968 Topps card #42 on the left and his 1969 Topps card # 209 on the right. Topps used the same photo both years for many players, but this is the only reverse negative from 1969 that I'm aware of. No, Haney is not ambidextrous.


Here's an uncorrected error card of Gantner's 1987 Topps card #108, as evident from the backwards Milwaukee Brewer's logo on his cap. I just learned THIS YEAR that the Brewer's logo is more than a glove with a ball in it - it's a combination of lowercase letters 'm' and 'b' for the initials of the team. To think of the number of times I've looked at that logo and never noticed.  Sheesh.



Here's Juan Gonzalez' 1990 Donruss/Leaf rookie card #33 on the left (correct) and error card on the right (also card #33). This guy turned out to be a RBI machine. His 162-game average was 135 RBI's!

Hope you enjoyed.

CinciCuse Bill
Labels:

Comments

  1. Brett AlanApril 11, 2020 at 10:44 AM

    Wow...I'm trying to imagine how expensive a variation of that 1957 Aaron would be. It was never corrected, but if there were two versions and one were significantly harder to find, that would be a super-expensive card.

    ReplyDelete
  2. FujiApril 11, 2020 at 11:29 AM

    I think the first time I heard about a reverse negative being used was back in 1982 with the Fleer John Littlefield card. The printed both error and corrected versions, but one was much more scarce than the other. The other famous one from my childhood was the 1989 Upper Deck Dale Murphy.

    ReplyDelete
  3. night owlApril 11, 2020 at 11:32 AM

    Long time ago, I did a post about how I had just discovered that the Brewers logo was an "M" and a "B". Every since, I've come across many people who also took a long time to figure it out.

    I also didn't know about the Gantner card until now. Gonna have to go look at that one in my collection.

    ReplyDelete
  4. BoApril 11, 2020 at 5:23 PM

    There's a whole blog dedicated to the topic. Very comprehensive across all sports. http://revneg.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ballplayers Turned Announcers, Actors, Writers, Etc.

  We all know of ballplayers that become announcers, actors, or writers. This post shows cards for a few notable examples, as well as a few other players with occupations that you may not be aware of. Announcers 1952 Topps card #227. Not only was Joe Garagiola a catcher for parts of nine season with four clubs, but he was also an announcer, writer, and host of numerous television shows. Joe was honored by the Baseball Hall of Fame with the Ford C. Frick Award for outstanding broadcasting accomplishments and he was named as the 2014 recipient of the Buck O'Neil Lifetime Achievement Award, presented once every three years by the Baseball Hall of Fame for positive contributions to Major League Baseball.     1965 Topps card #65. Tony Kubek played for the Yankees for nine seasons, winning the 1957 Rookie of the Year award and selected to three All-Star games. Kubek played in six World Series in the late 1950s and early 1960s, starting in 37 World Series games. Upon his retirement, Kubek
6 comments
Read more

Welcome to my first post!

Original, well-loved, cards from my youth. Rose: "I'd walk through hell in a gasoline suit to play baseball." My Story: I started collecting sports cards back in 1970 when I was about 9-yrs old. If I recall correctly, the first packs I opened in 70 and 71 contained a card of Pete Rose. Rose became my favorite player because of his hustle and desire to win, and he was one of the main cogs of the Cincinnati Reds Big Red Machine, my favorite team. (I still consider Rose to be one of the best players ever, but I have no respect for what he has done outside of the white lines) I collected a lot of cards up until mid 1975 which is when my interests changed, but I never got rid of those cards (nor were they thrown away by mom or dad, thankfully). I got back into collecting, on and off, from the mid 80's up to this day, but only baseball cards. Over the years, I realized I had a fairly decent collection of player cards from those days and started to organize my co
9 comments
Read more

4 Home Run Games

A player hitting four home runs in one game has only been achieved 18 times in MLB history. No one has done it twice. In this collection, I try to obtain cards that acknowledge this rare feat with preferably some notation on the front of the card, but if I can't find that I look for some acknowledgement on the back of the card. 1. On Memorial Day May 30, 1894 Bobby Lowe became the first MLB player to hit 4 HRs in one game when his Boston Beaneaters beat the Cincinnati Reds 20 - 11. The HRs were hit consecutively. Although this card pictures Bobby Lowe with Milwaukee of the Western Association, he made it to the majors in 1890 and spent 18 years in the majors. His best season was 1894 when he had 212 hits, 17 HRs, 115 RBIs and a .346 BA. Bobby Lowe Old Judge Reprint. 2. On July 13, 1896 Ed Delahanty became the 2nd player to hit 4 HRS in one game, 2 of which were inside-the-park. Despite this feat, his Philadelphia Phillies lost to the Chicago Colts 9 - 8. Delahanty hit over
9 comments
Read more