An Impossible Card Resurfaces 35 Years Later
What is it about Topps and 35th anniversaries? Last year Topps gave us "Fun Face," an obvious nod to an iconic card from 1989 and perhaps even a not-so-obvious nod to another!
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The bat over the wrong shoulder. The smile. The tilt of the cap. Might the card also pay homage to that OTHER iconic card of 1989, the one with baseball's top prospect? Is there something to the theory or is it "for the Birds?" π§΅2/2 pic.twitter.com/c2gjH5wi1r
β SABR Baseball Cards (@SABRbbcards) October 9, 2024
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True to form, the 2025 Topps set is bringing us yet another 35th anniversary tribute to a Junk Wax legend. While Topps might have colored outside the lines a little and paid homage to the 1990 Upper Deck Kevin Maas or Ben McDonald, they stayed within the brand and went with an absolute legend: the Frank Thomas "No Name on Front" error card.
π ππππ ππππ: 2025 Topps Series One will feature βNo Nameβ variations, paying homage to the famous 1990 Frank Thomas No Name rookie card.
β Topps (@Topps) February 8, 2025
There are βNo Nameβ cards for all 100 subjects, and each card is limited to exactly 35 copies. pic.twitter.com/INodohdrbi
Back in the day, the original, a near-impossible find sometimes abbreviated NNOF (for "No Name on Front"), brought collectors two mysteries in one. The first, of course, was "What happened to the name?!?" Numerous Hobby sites, including Big Hurt HOF, have since provided the scoop on that. The other mystery, less about cardboard than baseball itself, was, "Who's the other guy on the card?" There's a fun story to this second one that I'll share briefly before saying more about the NNOF phenomenon.
Two summers ago I was ripping packs with a few dozen members of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), one of whom was Dan Evans, the former White Sox executive who drafted Frank. Well, one of the boxes we ripped just happened to be 1990 Topps, and you won't need many tries to guess who's card we pulled. (Sadly, it DID have name on front.) When I mentioned to Dan that collectors had been trying to ID the mystery player for decades, he simply texted Frank and asked. "John Valentin" was Frank's immediate reply. Mystery solved. I guess sometimes all you have to do is ask the right people!
And now, back to the whole NNOF thing, mainly to share a bit of Hobby history. Though we take it for granted today that, barring errors or printing issues, cards will always have the player's name on the front, there was a time in the Hobby when that was not at all the case. Consider the 1948 Bowman set, for example, famous for its rookie cards of Stan Musial (depending who you ask), Yogi Berra, and Warren Spahn. The entire set was NNOF!
Though kids of the era might not have minded turning the card over to reveal the player, the NNOF quality of the Bowman cards was exploited in 1949 by upstart rival Leaf to gain competitive advantage.
"Each extra-large, pre-war size ALL-STAR Picture carries the name of the player right on the front of the card."
- Ad promoting the 1949 Leaf set
Note the prominence of the names on the front of the Leaf cards.
Though Bowman would dispose of Leaf rather handily in the courts, they seemed to have appreciated Leaf's "innovative" approach to player names. After starting off their own 1949 set in the usual NNOF front manner, here was Bowman all of a sudden adding names in the set's later series. For example, here are the first and last cards in the 1949 Bowman set. Notice the difference?
Of course, as sometimes happens with a change of plan, there were some "tweeners" who enjoyed both the NNOF and NOF treatment, including Hall of Famer Johnny Mize!
So there you have it...41 years before Big Hurt NNOF there was Big Cat NNOF! Of course, while there have only been 84 copies of the Thomas NNOF graded by PSA, there have been 384 of the Mize. If you're looking to buy the Mize in a PSA 4, all you need is $90 and a quick trip to eBay. The Thomas, meanwhile, will set you back around $5000, that is if you can even find one.
With only 35 copies made of the 2025 Thomas NNOF, good chance its price settles somewhere between the two and most definitely high enough to put a "big hurt" in your wallet. Still, it's the 35th anniversary of the original Frank Thomas NNOF. How else are you gonna celebrate?! (Oh, and did we mention Frank wore number 35?)
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Jason A. Schwartz is a collectibles expert whose work can be found regularly at SABR Baseball Cards, Hobby News Daily, and 1939Bruins.com. His collection of Hank Aaron baseball cards and memorabilia is currently on exhibit at the Atlanta History Center, and his collectibles-themed artwork is on display at the Honus Wagner Museum and PNC Park.