come rain or come shine

i think by now we can agree that variations are pretty useless. the first one i remember was the 1979 topps bump wills card saying he was a blue jay. it was a novelty and interesting and unexpected. these days, there are so many variations, it is a surprise when a base card isn't given the treatement.

back in 2003, topps was variant crazy, at least with bowman heritage and topps heritage, and they also included a few alternative images in their gallery hall of fame edition set. here are a couple, side by side with the base versions, that i found in my long ignored monster boxes. first up is joe morgan:

it's a bright, sunshiny day on the left, but looks like rain in morgan's alternative universe.  lou brock

got a similar treatment, although the worst part of the variation is that topps replaced his pillbox hat!

i didn't seek these out; rather i bought a box of the stuff. i did go and find the duke snider, don sutton and tommy lasorda variations, the last two of which featured fully erased backgrounds. i haven't looked to see what variations lurk in 2022 topps yet, but i know they are there.