Topps is at it Again (Discovered a UER)!

[Dalkowski110]

Just when you thought that maybe Derek Jeter having pictures photoshopped of the President and Mickey Mantle or a short-print Jacoby Ellsbury card or the world's first baseball card given to a squirrel was enough, Topps just keeps on giving. I haven't seen this one on any of the baseball card boards, so I'll post it here.

With their first round pick of the 2007 draft, the San Francisco Giants selected a left-handed pitcher with a good fastball going by the Dickensian name of Madison Bumgarner. We got our first look at young Mr. Bumgarner in a Giants uniform in the 2007 Bowman Draft set. The same photo was used in 2007 Bowman Sterling, where Bumgarner had an autographed card...

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But for devotees of the 2006 Topps AFLAC promotional set, it's easy to recognize that Bumgarner isn't wearing a Giants uniform. Rather, it was merely added with CGI. Here's the card to give you an example...

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However, the MLBPA is apparently okay with Topps photoshopping a Major League uniform onto its players with regards to the Bowman insert sets. Action shots of David Price and Matt LaPorta from 2007 Bowman Draft also seem to be CGI, though not blatantly stolen from another photograph. But what about this?

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This is the back of Bumgarner's 2007 Bowman Sterling card. Note the little portrait. Look closely. He's not wearing a Giants cap, nor does the uniform look like a Giants uniform. That's right, Topps added a 100% unaltered photo of Bumgarner in his 2006 AFLAC All-American Game uniform. I doubt Topps did this on purpose...if it was so hard to catch for the beckett.com guys, I honestly doubt this was on purpose like Poley Walnuts or missing signatures. Technically, since the Bumgarner card is an insert, the MLBPA has no right to do anything about it and it won't affect the status or value of the card. However, it is at least an interesting UER.

[Gary Dunaier]

In the old days, Topps used to airbrush new team logos on uniforms of players who had been traded but for whom they only had photos of them with the old team.

Same practice, new technology.

[flyingdutchdude]

Very common practice used all the way back to 1909. Half of the T206 cards are like that along with many Topps cards from the 1970s in all sports.

PS thats a great picture of him, Im sure that why they wanted to use it in the set.

[hudsonharden]

That was big for the Topps Traded cards too of the late 80's. Some of them looked very natural, others looked like a 3rd graded did them.

[MadHatter]

Where's the UER?

I used to love the old airbrushed cards. They were so obvious, and in some cases hilarious. For some reason I keep thinking about a Kevin Mitchell card from the 80's where Topps airbrushed his whole uniform on... including texture on the uniform sleeves and shoulders. It was bizarre looking.

[Dalkowski110]

"Where's the UER?"

They forgot to CGI the photo on the back of the card. The 2007 Bowman Draft card also has a photo that tiny, but it's correctly CGI'ed. BTW, I agree with flyingdutchdude, it is a cool photo and I can see why they used it.

[Swankee21]

It's amazing how people are able to notice these small details. I would never have had a clue that it was CGI'd.
Actually, I have a couple of Topps cards that are over a decade old (1994, 1987) with minor errors that no one has seemed to notice as of yet. Is there any way for me to contact Topps or Beckett so I can report the errors for their future price guides?

[Gary Dunaier]

Very common practice used all the way back to 1909. Half of the T206 cards are like that along with many Topps cards from the 1970s in all sports.
Even the T206 Wagner was not immune... the "PITTSBURG" on his uniform as it appears on the card does not appear in the original photograph from where the T206 image was taken.