How to spot 2015 Topps Heritage Baseball Error Cards

With 2015 Topps Heritage Baseball releasing next week, collectors will be opening packs trying to find the error cards that mimic and parallel the errors made in the 1966 Topps Baseball release. Because these new Heritage error cards are unannounced, the hardest part, most of the time, is spotting them.

I was the first to spot one of these cards back in 2011. I did a post about it called Mysterious ARod 2011 Topps Heritage Card Surfaces on eBay. At the time the card was on its way to being sold for a little more than $10. That auction ended early. When it was understood to be an error mimic card it sold for more than $300.

So rather than wait until after the release of 2015 Topps Heritage Baseball, we have decided to provide for you a guide with a checklist of cards that could contain errors.  We've divided them into four categories, Hight Alert for cards that are almost guaranteed to have error variations, Possible Errors for cards that look like good candidates for error SSP cards, Longshots for cards that have an outside chance of being included as an SP and Conditional Longshots for cards that could have an error variation but depend on certain elements being present.

All of this is based on what we know about the original error cards from 1966, what we know about the 2015 Topps Heritage Checklist and how previous releases of Heritage have handled errors. Until these cards are discovered and confirmed, check these card numbers very carefully.

To find 2015 Topps Heritage Baseball cards already for sale and available on eBay, click on this link.

To find any specific confirmed error cards already for sale on eBay, click on that players name.

All error cards will have a Topps code that ends with 2259. If it doesn't have this code, it's not an error card.

High Alert

These 2015 Topps Heritage cards already match teams, player positions or both, of there 1966 Topps Baseball counterparts.  Three of these card contain the same type of error, wrong Date of Birth. There is a chance not all three will wind up in 2015 Heritage, but we've included all of them just in case.

30 Brandon Phillips, Cincinnati Reds®
Based on Pete Rose's card, look in the hits column on the back of the card for a year that doesn't match Philips actual stats. Here are his actual stats - 2002-8, 2003-77, 2004-4, 2005-0, 2006-148, 2007-187, 2008-146, 2009-161, 2010-172, 2011-183, 2012-163, 2013-158, 2014-123.

***UPDATE*** Error Confirmed

2013 hit total is error at 163

36 Sean Doolittle, Oakland Athletics™ 
Based on Jim Hunter's card, look in the Year column for years that don't match up with his stats. Most likely it will be a year behind using 2011, 2012 & 2013.

***UPDATE*** Error Confirmed

Years with Oakland are incorrectly listed as 2011, 2012, 2013

74 Jarrod Parker, Oakland Athletics™ 
Based on Don Mossi's card, look for Parker's wrong Date of Birth.  Parker's actual Birth date is November 24, 1988.

***UPDATE*** Error Confirmed

Parker's DOB 1988, error shows 1989

126 Chris Tillman, Baltimore Orioles® 
Based on Jim Palmer's rookie card, look for a write up that mentions he is a left-hander. Like Palmer, Tillman is a right-hander

***UPDATE*** Error Confirmed

Tillman referred to as a left-hander

192 Kole Calhoun, Angels®
Based on Vic Powers card and just like Don Mossi's look for Calhoun's wrong Date of Birth. Calhoun's actual Date of Birth is October 14, 1987.

***UPDATE*** Error Confirmed

Calhoun's DOB 1987, error shows 1991

266 Lonnie Chisenhall, Cleveland Indians®
Based on Pedro Gonzalez's card, look for Chisenhall's name to be misspelled on the back of the card.

***UPDATE*** Error Confirmed

Chisenhall misspelled with only one "L"

365 Brett Gardner, New York Yankees®
Based on Roger Maris' card and just like Don Mossi and Vic Powers look for Gardner's wrong Date of Birth. Brett Gardner's actual Date of Birth is August 24, 1983

***UPDATE*** Error Confirmed

Date of Birth should be 1983, error lists it as 1980

Possible Errors

These 2015 Heritage cards aren't exact matches for their 1966 Topps counterparts but are still the type of error mimc cards that have been done in the past.

161 Adeiny Hechavarria, Miami Marlins®

Based on Jerry Lumpe's card look for a white streak just above "Shortstop" on  Hechavarria's card/

458 Jon Lester, Chicago Cubs®
Base on Manny Jimenez's card look for a misspelling of Lester's name, perhaps Lister or Lestir.

447 Chris Sale, Chicago White Sox®
Based on Dick Ellsworth's card look for another player featured besides Sale. It could be any player but if it 's a literal mimic card it should either be Gordon Beckham, Micah Johnson, Carlos Sanchez or  Emilio Bonifacio.

***UPDATE*** Error Confirmed

Jose Quintana is on Sale error card

Longshots

These are 1966 Topps errors cards that are too good to pass up but don't have a corresponding player in the same position or the original number goes beyond 500 in 2015 Topps Heritage Baseball.

45 Mookie Betts, Boston Red Sox®

Based on Lenny Green's card, look for Betts. birth month to have letter transposed, perhaps "cOt 7, 1992." This 1966 card is number 502, which has no corresponding card in the 2015 Heritage set. Betts seems to be the most likely substitute. 

94 Ken Giles, Philadelphia Phillies® 
118 Jonathan Papelbon, Philadelphia Phillies®
343 Cliff Lee, Philadelphia Phillies®
397 Kyle Kendrick, Philadelphia Phillies®
Any of these Philadelphia Phillies pitchers may have an impossible amount of wins in one of their seasons' stats, based on John Boozer's card. The most likely candidate for this feels like Ken Giles.

179 Samuel Tuivailala, St. Louis Cardinals®

       Xavier Scruggs, St. Louis Cardinals®  
Based on the Cardinals Rookies card, look for Xavier's name to be misspelled.

Conditional Longshots

These cards seem unlikely but may be error cards in 2015 Heritage if certain elements are present, something that can't be known until seeing the base cards after the release date.

43 Juan Uribe, Los Angeles Dodgers®  
If a button or other jersey or pants part is visible, perhaps when it is not supposed to be, Uribe's card might be primed to mimic these button, airbrushed button, no button 1966 Don Landrum  photo variations.

51 Francisco Rodriguez, Milwaukee Brewers™
If the copyright statement and 'PRINTED IN THE U.S.A." are present on the lower right of all the 2015 Heritage cards, Rodriguez may have an error card that excludes it, based on Gordon Richardson's 1966 Topps card.

62 Lance Lynn, St. Louis Cardinals®

If Lynn's 2015 Heritage card has a one line writeup, he may have an error card that excludes it, based on Merritt Ranew's 1966 Topps card.

91 Nick Markakis, Atlanta Braves™ 
If Markakis' regular base card mentions he just changed teams, from the Orioles to the Braves, he may have an error card that excludes it, based on Bob Uecker's 1966 Topps card.

***UPDATE*** Different Kind of Error Confirmed

Our advice for the moment is to continue to check Markakis' cards for this type of error, but it seems that Jason Heyward has been included in the "Traded Variations" category, Topps code 2260, which matches Bob Uecker's error card. There have been 3 Traded Variations found which matches 1966 but nothing is official yet.

187 Brad Ausmus, Detroit Tigers®
There is not Tigers Team card in 2015 Heritage, but if Ausmus' card mentions anything about the team finishing in first place in the AL Central division, he may have an error card that changes that standing to second, third or fourth place, based on Detroit Tigers' 1966 Topps card.

There are other 1966 Topps error cards but we have enough confidence they won't have anything to do with 2015 Topps Heritage Baseball.

As the se cards are confirmed we will update this guide. To find 2015 Topps Heritage cards that are already being sold and available for purchase on eBay, click on this link.