My Dad’s Barry Bonds Error Card Collection Showcase!

Happy belated Father’s Day! I am visiting my parents in Pittsburgh and had a chance to sit down with my dad and go through a small sampling of his Barry Bonds Error card collection.
As a Bonds supercollector for 35 years, my Dad Jeff would occasionally come across strange cards that had some kind of factory defect or mistake on them. These error cards include wrong fronts / backs, blank fronts / backs, no name on front / back, missing gold foil, missing serial number, mis-cuts, wrong relics, and many others. As these types of cards were never intentionally made, these cards are not separate issues with their own entries on TCDB. Most collectors might view them as interesting curiosities; a novelty, but nothing serious enough to merit collecting or adding to a wantlist.
My Dad isn’t “most collectors”.
He went ahead and scooped them up as he encountered them all the way back to the late 80s, early 90s. As of today, he has amassed 500 different Barry Bonds error cards - a 4” thick binder full of exclusively Barry Bonds error cards. While the time needed to go through and discuss every error card would be prohibitive, my Dad picked out a selection of some of his favorites to showcase in this video here today. Many of the cards seen in this video should not exist. With some of the cards, it’s not clear what they are, how many were made, or what the history behind the card is.
Enjoy seeing some absolute craziness that is rare beyond compare!
Also, if there’s a request, I wouldn’t mind doing a follow up video where I could page through the entirety of this binder page by page and at least briefly show each card. My Dad leaves copious notes about each card, explaining why it’s an error. In many cases, the error is quite subtle and not at all obvious, so this is a great boon. Let me know if you the viewers would enjoy a video like that.
Enjoy the strangest collection of Barry Bonds error cards ever assembled!

[@topps85401]

The debut of Jeff!! What a fantastic showcase! Wow what gems there!

[@HighPopProfessor]

YES! We were thinking of you, Nate! It’s great to have some of this absurd collection documented now on KZbin for all-time. Thanks for the watch and comment!

[@jon-eriksuermann]

Your family are amazing collectors and each unique of each other. Great video

[@HighPopProfessor]

Thank you for the kind words! We all definitely each have our own unique collecting focuses, styles, and PCs! Thanks for watching, Jon!

[@4softcorners728]

I always heard Nate talk about the JM collection. Once your brother and you started talking about your Dad’s Bonds collection I was able to connect the dots. Such an amazing snapshot of his collection. You can definitely tell how proud he is of it and how much joy it still brings him! Thank you for sharing this Brian!

[@HighPopProfessor]

I’m glad you enjoyed the showcase! Yeah, Nate is awesome - he’s been enjoying picking up cards from our dad for years now. We always get a kick out of seeing his pickup videos featuring Bonds cards from our dad’s collection. His excitement is infectious! Thanks for the watch and the comment, Joe!

[@thedrewavintagelegacy6455]

What a great collection. The sheer amount to time and effort and care it must have taken to put this together is outstanding. Thank you so much for sharing it with us

[@HighPopProfessor]

Yeah, it’s great for him too because even as he has been liquidating his primary collection, my dad is still actively pursuing Bonds error cards and promo cards. Those specific lanes are still active for him, so he still gets to collect and search for new additions to his collection all the time even though he has basically “retired” from acquiring standard issue cards. I think we as collectors can learn from how he pivoted his approach to collecting in a well defined manner by slightly shifting his collecting focus. Thanks for watching, The Drew!

[@iconic_baseball]

This makes me so happy. Dad - thanks for sharing some of your amazing Bonds ‘misfits’ and great job putting this together Brian!

[@HighPopProfessor]

Me too! I felt like the collecting world needed to know that some of these ridiculous cards exist. The fact that they’ve all been compiled together in one binder is both hilarious and incredible!

[@svenpatrick1637]

I love watching content of collections. That is a great collection!

[@HighPopProfessor]

I’m glad you got a kick out of it! It truly is a one of a kind assembly of weird cards that should not exist! Thanks for watching, Sven!

[@jimmason2080]

Incredible rare stuff....I finally see the legend!

[@vintagesanctuary]

Brian, it was so awesome to see a small fraction of your dad's epic Barry Bonds error collection and to see Jeff on video! I would bet he has the best collection of Barry Bonds error cards in the World! 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯 That Power atomic refractor error card had me drooling big-time! 😊👊

[@HighPopProfessor]

I’m glad you enjoyed it, Adam! I agree with you - I’m not sure anyone else would have anywhere near as extensive an error card collection for a single player of this depth and magnitude. Yes, the Power “atomic” refractor should either have a regular refractor pattern or it should have an embossed surface and a deckled edge to pair with that atomic refractor pattern! The “power” refractors also tend to not hulk much either, making them present even better! I still like the unnumbered blue Century Mark autos, the wooden chuck stuck inside the jersey relic (and poking out of the side! 😳), and the Clemens pin stripe patch in what should be a Bonds bat chunk card. Also, the 88 Topps printed on the masking tape is absolutely WILD! Thanks for watching!

[@ClementeCollector]

What a great video! Your Dads love for the cards makes the video 10X better! My favorite was the wrong photo card. I need some error Clemente cards, I’m jealous now! lol

[@HighPopProfessor]

What can I say? I come by it honestly! 😂😂😂 It would be tough NOT to love cards in this family! Thanks for watching, Theo!

[@Dufex_of_Life]

Crazy collection

[@HighPopProfessor]

Agreed! It’s absurd! It’s really no wonder that I collect the way that I do, growing up with this kind of influence! 😂😂😂 I wouldn’t have it any other way! Thanks for watching!!

[@Dodgertown_76_Fungo]

Great video and Fantastic collection. Nice showing of cards not seen much or at all. Cheers.

[@HighPopProfessor]

Yes, some of these are true “1/1” irreplaceable unique pieces that you will never see anywhere else. Thanks for watching!

[@mozzie22]

Awesome! Hope he wrote those stickers out and then put them on the penny sleeves! Bought a card once, and the guy had written on the penny sleeve and it left and indentation.

[@HighPopProfessor]

Oh yes, he’s very careful about that sort of thing! He stores the binder upright so that the weight of the cards won’t press down on the slabs in the back. Thanks for watching and for your concern for the cards’ condition!

[@scootscollectibles]

This was amazing. Now I know who the famous JM COLLECTION is. Thanks for sharing. I’m sure this was a lot of fun to film.

[@HighPopProfessor]

Oh, it was a blast! There were so many we had to pass up for the sake of brevity - Electric diamonds with bronze foil instead of shimmery silver, Topps gold with silver foil instead of gold, tons of blank backs, blank fronts, wrong backs, crazy miscuts, you name it! Thanks for watching, Scoots!

[@kenscardboard]

Great to see your dad’s Bonds collection. Interesting miss printed cards. The eTopps logo is a a sticker that is adhered to the face of the card. I took all of my eTopps cards out of their original bad cases.

[@HighPopProfessor]

Yes! I’ve always wondered if people who remove those cards from their original “sealed” states do it to get them into binder pages / top loaders to make their collections uniform, or to get them slabbed up to also keep their collections consistent. In this case, (literally!!), the Bonds MUST be kept in its original sealed case to show that the sticker had been adhered upside down in the factory as a mess up and was not done by a hobbyist / collector. Thanks for watching, Ken!

[@ThePlaybookUSA]

If he get them graded to maximize value would sell for much more if selling cards a in mint condition

[@HighPopProfessor]

Oh, yes! He has probably submitted 200+ cards for grading in the past year or two in order to maximize sale value in his collection. While he’s selling off the majority of his collection, he is still actively pursuing error cards and promos. Many companies outside of Beckett won’t slab these types of cards, but your point remains a good one! Thanks for watching and commenting!