Bill Ripken Error Card
Ripken is not the first baseball player to have an error card. His brother has a NSFW card. It’s a black box over a naughty word, and whiteout or scribbles on the naughty word. In recent interviews, Ripken blames his teammates.
At the height of the baseball card industry, error cards were a hot commodity. During the late 1980s, multiple companies began to produce cards, including Topps and Donruss. One such card was of Bill McGraw, who was playing for the Baltimore Orioles in 1989. The card depicts him with a bat and the words “F*CK FACE” inscribed on the barrel of his bat.
Today, a gem-mint copy of a Billy Ripken error card is worth around $340. Raw copies are worth around seventy to eighty dollars. Even Ripken’s “Fuck Face” card, released 33 years ago, has a colorful history. It is still a popular collectible today, and a mint version of an early error card is worth quite a bit of money.
The 1989 Fleer Bill Ripken error card is one of the most expensive and sought after error cards in the hobby. A gem-mint PSA 10 copy can fetch up to $600 while a PSA 9 can fetch over $100. eBay is a great place to see current going rates for the card.
Ripken never made it to the post-season and never hit more than four home runs in a season. However, his card defined his career and has its own website. It was so rare that he gave every groomsman in his wedding party one of these cards. Bill Ripken also founded Ripken Baseball, which owns three minor league baseball teams.
The original version of Ripken’s ‘fuck face’ card had several different printings, and Fleer corrected the error quickly. However, the original card went on to sell for $1,000 in old hobby stores. Ripken’s card became an instant icon in the baseball card world.
Ripken had a long career as a second baseman for the Baltimore Orioles. In 1988, he had a batting average of.247 and played 150 games. The resulting error card, released by Fleer in 1989, was only worth a few cents.
