Baseball Card Show Purchase #3 – Ernie Banks/Ryan Howard 2009 Topps Heritage ‘Then And Now’
I thought I had something really grand here – and I was hoping that one, or many, of my more enlightened card collecting readers would be able to help me with this…
If they had not been back-to-back in the box of cards I was surfing through, I probably would not have picked either of them up. But as soon as I noticed a major difference between the two cards, I grabbed them both and knew I would need help in getting an answer or two.
First, let me show you the cards.
Fronts:
Backs:
Ok, so as far as I can see, they don’t have the same number, but they were issued in the same year, and are part of the same subset.
So, why do they feature different photos of Ernie Banks?? The Ryan Howard photo did not change.
After investigating the fronts as thoroughly as I could, I see that there is no difference in the cards with the exception of two different photos of Banks being used.
But, then the backs clarified it all for me. One of these cards praises the Home Runs leaders and the other celebrates the RBI leaders.
So, I don’t have an ultra-rare error card.
For $0.20, it was certainly worth the purchase though!!!
Regarding the Banks/Howard cards, Topps drives me nuts with these Then & Now insert sets. Topps frequently reuses photos, but they do so far more often with these sets, as you have seen with this Howard photo. I must have at least three different cards showing the same photo of Warren Spahn paired with some other current Phillies pitcher.