This week's 'Card of the Week' is actually a set: the 1991 Topps Desert Shield set. This set was a parallel to the basic 1991 Topps set, and was given distributed in pack form to the troops serving in the Desert Shield campaign. The difference is in the foil stamp in the upper right hand part of the card.
These cards are extremely rare, holding one of the highest multipliers in terms of value for any Topps set. As such, they were prone to counterfeiting. The best way to tell whether or not the Desert Shield card is genuine is to examine the foil stamp itself. The real logo is silver and does not shine brightly. The counterfeits have a stamp that is almost gold in color, and extremely bright. To get around this, people online tend to darken the photos, this way the foil stamp seems closer to the silver of the legitimate cards.
The Steve Jeltz card depicted is simply an example of the cards from the set. Yes, I fully admit to picking this card due to being a Royals fan and this being the first Royals player I located. All in all, this is an interesting set, not only due to the scarcity of the cards, but due to the historical context of the first war in Iraq.
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