Card of the Day: Barry Bonds 1987 Donruss Opening Day – Johnny Ray – Error #163

Q&A – Where Does This Barry Bonds Card Come From?

Question: Where does this Barry Bonds card come from? The design looks like 1997 Topps Baseball, but the photo and card number are different. Please help!

Answer: Cool find. Throughout the 90’s Topps would issue Pre-Production cards promoting that year’s newest card designs. Your Barry Bonds card is one of those cards. Topps issued them to promote the 1997 Topps Baseball design. Various outlets that Topps dealt with received them.

Nine cards (#PP1-#PP9) make up the 1997 Topps Baseball Pre-Production set.

• Frank Thomas #PP1
• Brady Anderson #PP2
• Barry Bonds #PP3
• Eric Young #PP4
• Ricky Bottalico #PP5
• Royce Clayton #PP6
• Tom Goodwin #PP7
• Craig Biggio #PP8
• Ellis Burks #PP9

Each card in the Pre-Production set utilizes the same photo that went on to be used in the main base set EXCEPT for Barry Bonds. The Barry Bonds Pre-Production card and base set card have two different images making it a bit more desirable.

Card of the Day: Barry Bonds 1997 Topps Hobby Masters #16

Card of the Day: Barry Bonds 1996 Bowman #78

Card of the Day: Barry Larkin 1998 Fleer Ultra #180

Card of the Day: Barry Bonds 1992 Topps Kids #21

How To Spot A Fake Barry Bonds 1986 Topps Traded Rookie Card

Unless you have his Topps Tiffany counterpart, the basic Barry Bonds 1986 Topps Traded rookie card doesn’t carry much value like it once did.  With that being said, counterfeit copies are still floating around.

Keep these tips in mind.  We don’t want that $5 going towards a counterfeit.

• The counterfeit is printed on a thicker card stock than the original, and has a weight of 1.70 grams compared to a weight of 1.42 grams of the authentic card.
• When comparing the edges of both cards, looking straight down on the edge, the counterfeit has a bright white stock compared to the off white, almost yellowed color of the authentic card.  The counterfeit also has a smooth edge compared to the choppier edge of the authentic card.
• On the front of the counterfeit, the font of the “Topps” logo in the upper right corner is noticeably smaller than the font on the authentic card.
• The trademark “R”, located just above the word “Topps”, touches the “S” in Topps on the counterfeit, while there is a noticeable space between them on the authentic card.
• On the front, the font size of the name “Barry Bonds”, at the bottom of the card, is visibly smaller on the counterfeit than the authentic card.
• The overall fuzziness of the photo on the counterfeit compared to the authentic card is another sign to look for.  A good place to look to help spot the counterfeit is in the blue sky background just to the left of Barry Bonds’ head.  On the real card the sky is made up of blue and white print dots, while on the counterfeit the background has blue, white, red, and black print dots.
• One sign giving away the counterfeit is the bright white look of the white card stock on the back, which looks almost bleached.  The authentic card has more of an off white color as opposed to the white card stock on the counterfeit’s back.
• You will notice the card number “11T” has a diamond shaped box around it.  On the authentic card, the corners of this diamond are rounded, while on the counterfeit they come to a point.  The diamond around the “Topps” logo on the back shares this same characteristic.
• The font size of the card number “11T” is noticeably thinner on the counterfeit than on the authentic card.
• Look on the back inside the white box which says “Talkin’ Baseball”.  On each of the four corners in this box there is a black line located just inside the corners.  On the authentic card the lines are straight, while on the counterfeit the lines are rounded.

Card of the Day: Barry Bonds 1993 Topps Traded #1T

Card of the Day: Barry Bonds 1991 Jimmy Dean #4

Card of the Day: Barry Sanders 1999 Score 10th Anniversary 1989 Rookie Reprint Auto