In 1989 Fleer put out the infamous Billy Ripken card that had everyone looking for a card of a player that was just a step above Ozzie Canseco in notoriety. Error Cards, error stamps, error coins have always been a thing but it seemed like this woke up the baseball card industry to what could be a very powerful marketing tool. There have been a few notable cards the most valuable being last year’s 2006 Alex Gordon which can be found on ebay for 500ish dollars.
. This card gained notoriety when MLB decided that in order for a player to have a baseball card they had to have played in a major league game. Topps removed all the players from their sets but “accidently” left a few cards of one of the most touted prospects in baseball. This caused a lot of publicity for the 06 Topps set.
The Gordon card seemed a fairly blatant attempt to create an error card for the increased demand but it doesn’t really hold a candle to what they did this year. One of those mischievous designers was supposedly playing around with photoshop and placed Mickey Mantle and George W. Bush in the 2007 Topps Derek Jeter card. They claim they left it in more or less on accident. It looks ridiculous and it cheapens the Topps brand which in this day of >$100 packs of cards is a serious concern. 
There are a lot of ways to market baseball cards and the sport of baseball but poor photoshop jobs aren’t one of them. The industry needs to focus lowering the supply of their product as a whole not just single error cards. The scarcity of the error card or the correction card is the allure of things like the Billy Ripken card. There were 3-4 correction cards that were released and each one is some what of a collectors item. There will of course continue to be error cards but passing off fake ones is going to take away one of the natural marketing tools the hobby has.