2022 was a unique year for error cards in baseball card sets. Several unexpected printing mistakes and variations popped up that collectors found intriguing to chase down. While error cards have always held a special appeal for the obsessive “chase the error” collector, 2022 seemed to feature more identifiable mistakes across several mainstream releases than usual. Let’s take a deeper look at some of the more notable baseball card errors found in packs last year.
One of the biggest errors came from Topps’ flagship 2022 Series 1 baseball card release. On Aaron Judge’s base card (#88), instead of the correct Yankee pinstripe uniform, Judge is depicted wearing the road grey uniform typically worn on Sundays. This road grey error quickly became one of the most sought-after variants from the set. Judge is so synonymous with the Yankees’ iconic home pinstripes that seeing him in anything different stood out immediately to eagle-eyed collectors. Estimates placed the number of Series 1 Judge road grey errors in circulation between 10-50 copies, making it an extremely rare find. On the resale market, graded examples now sell for well over $1000.
Another impressive error came from Topps Chrome. In the base Mickey Mantle refractors (#388RC), some copies were accidentally printed with the image and statistical information from a Pete Alonso card. So collectors ended up with mantle refractors that depicted and featured Alonso instead. This image swap error created a very fun and confusing variant. Like the Judge road grey, Alonso/Mantle switch errors were also quite scarce, estimated around 20 copies or less. They represent one of the more visually striking mistakes made that year.
Panini also contributed an interesting error to the 2022 checklist. In Prizm baseball, some boxes contained cards from the wrong sport entirely – namely, 2021 Prizm NFL cards. So baseball collectors randomly pulled cards like a Mac Jones rookie instead of prospects like Bobby Witt Jr. And NFL collectors possibly landed Jose Trevino refractor parallels meant for the baseball version. This crossover packaging error highlighted some sloppy quality control between Panini’s two major sports card lines being produced at the same time.
Topps Heritage had perhaps the most abundant error type across its 2022 release – nameplate variations. Dozens of different players like Shohei Ohtani, Wander Franco, and Nolan Arenado had copies with partial or entirely missing nameplates. These nameplate-less errors became a fun chase, as some were quite scarce pulls while others seemed to appear more frequently. In the resale market, graded Herbert errors that featured totally blank nameplates rose to prominence, as they represented an extreme anomaly from the normal Heritage design conventions.
Another set with intriguing nameplate errors was Bowman Draft. On one of the highly anticipated Jace Jung Prospect cards (#BDP77), some copies were missing the player’s first name so it simply read “Jung” rather than “Jace Jung.” This subtle mistake created an appealing talking point for diehardDraft collectors. Similarly, several University of Florida prospect cards like Nick Bitsko and Jud Fabian saw variations with their school logo missing from the uniform patch. Imperfect nameplates and missing logos produced some fun, low-print variants for diehards to track down.
One final error worth mentioning came very late in the year. In Topps Finest football, some “Green Ice” parallels were accidentally swapped to feature the wrong sport – as they contained baseball players like Juan Soto and Mookie Betts rather than Aaron Rodgers or Justin Jefferson. This crossover mistake was amusing given how late in the football product cycle it occurred. It served as a reminder that errors can pop up anywhere, even towards the end of a card company’s yearly production calendar.
In summation, 2022 had no shortage of interesting mistakes across baseball card brands like Topps, Panini, and Bowman that collectors eagerly sought. Major image swaps, missing nameplates, and wrong sport variants produced a fun chase for the error card community. With the inherent human element involved in mass card production, some flaws are inevitable each year – and 2022 seemed to yield more identifiable and discussable errors than normal. Going forward, collectors will be keeping a close eye out for any surprises that might pop up in 2023 issues as well. The hunt is always on to find the next unique miscut, misprint, or anomaly.
