Show me your print variations!
 

It seems more than time the Football side has it's own thread. There are quite a few recurring variations or defects in the major football sets, many of which are rarely noted or have not been publicly shown discussed.

Starting off with Jimmy Brown. Jim Brown's 61 Topps comes with a big white blob to the left, or no blob. The blob appears to me to be on 5% or less of the cards thus far.

Stealing a scan of someone else's copy since I'm lazy. 1955 Topps All-American Governali has a recurring defect where the "Q" in Quarterback is partially cut off. Both versions are easy to find.

Deacon Dan's 56 card comes with a vertical red line in the lower right, or without.

There is natural color differences between cards, sometimes drastic, without there being any kind of variant to go after. However, the Cardinals row in 1956, one of the 2 short printed rows, appears to be a bit more than that.

Cards have 1 of 2 looks - a light orange name plate box, with a 'smoother' look to the image and the dark blue background color. The players faces appear properly rendered, uniforms correct.

The second aesthetic is a dark orange name plate box, red ink more prominent in the players uniform, not just in the red top but often visible in the pants, and areas where red ink is not needed at all. The background doesn't look so smooth, it has a scratchier, less clean look that I'm not quite sure how to describe.

These differences all come in combination, on all Cardinals. It appears to me to be a legitimate variation, and does not really come in gradients but is clearly 1 or the other type of print.

1969 Topps #29 Jim Turner has a yellow or a red dot between his team and position.

Anyone have any variants for 61 Fleer ?

Mason comes with this squiggle spot thing by his ear, or without. Neither is difficult.

1956 Topps Billy Wilson can be found with this weird shape on the right side, some design element of the sheet. It intrudes on some cards that are almost perfectly centered, doesn't take a drastically bad cut like this one for part of it to appear.

I don't know what this one is. Many Topps cards of this period have inconsistently appearing cutting lines. 2nd series 1972 Football isn't one of them, from what I have seen. The line is also far too low, too close to the team name, to be a cutting line. It is recurring on Fernandez' card, though rare. I imagine it appears on some other cards on this sheet too, but I have not actually seen any other player with it.

Presumably this is a cutting line, but I've not noticed another 1970 Topps card besides Bill Brown with this pinkish/reddish line at bottom.

It is recurring, on a minority of cards but not too rare.

Another 61 superstar. Hornung's 1961 base card comes with a yellow splotch in the upper right at top. The exact shaping of the splotch varies a bit. Recurring, but way less common than the normal copy.

1961 Topps #32 can be found can be found with the blue flame fart variation.
Larry

https://www.net54baseball.com/pictur...ictureid=33508https://www.net54baseball.com/pictur...ictureid=27261

That fart might have been squishy LOL

It's probably on all eleven cards in that row, now if someone has a scan of the 1972 Topps Football Second Series Sheet...

Thank you! I don't know the sheet layout for 1972, but it makes sense it's on a full row. It looks like there is also a 'partial line' variation here, like these 2 (saw multiple on Lamonica).

Don't get what this line is; it's way too low to be a properly placed cutting line.

I found another partial sheet with three more cards on that row, I don't know if the Gossett is to the immediate right of Lamonica or if the five remaining unknown cards are between them, but I'm guessing the first six cards in the row are Fernandez-Mulligan-Lamonica-Gossett-Snow-Robertson and the line ends in the middle of Snow. I couldn't find a Robertson with any trace of a line.

I have not yet been able to find a 'partial line' Gossett like the Mulligan and Lamonica. Presumably it exists for him and Fernandez.

I don't know if this is recurring; I don't see any others listed online but that's not a very large sample size to say if it probably is not.

Wietecha got some extra blue

This is recurring and isn't rare, the color changing blob is always in the same spot but is always in varying sizes. All of these are currently on eBay.

I saw this card listed on eBay years ago as being a variation where the sheet makers hand drew a '2' on the bottom left edge for whatever reason. The card is on the left edge of the original uncut sheet but I believe it's probably just a recurring fisheye.

A lot like the Butkus, Donny Anderson has a big yellow blob in the name box that is difficult to miss. It seems to vary heavily in size and exact shape, but all of them are really obvious.

As far as I have noticed, all Donny Anderson's have the small white jut into the black name box.

It seems like there should be a Kuechenberg but I don't think I have ever seen one.

You know sheets much better than I - do you have any ideas on what these lines are? The 72 footballs, these you've found, the 73 Weaver strip from the baseball thread. These seem to be placed wrong to be cutting lines, as they are not where a properly centered card would be cut. I'm not sure why some minority of issued sheets would place lines like this where they are not 'hidden' in the issued product, in only some years.

Looks like there is this black mark on top of a yellow line on a lot of cards on this sheet. I can see it in the picture of the sheet you posted too:

I don't think any of those particular stray errant lines served any purpose, I think it was just sloppiness on the part of Topps of not removing them before printing the sheets.

I haven't seen another one yet, but Suggs here is doused in yellow, over most of the background, the uniform and his person.

Hugh McElhenny comes with or without this green mark by his jersey number. The defect version is not difficult.

Topps really could have found a picture where his eyes aren't closed.

Lots of great print defects in this thread! Keep'em coming.

jeff

Walt Sweeney in the 1965 Topps set, card 173, comes with or without this partial line and full line beneath it on the bottom of his card. It does not appear to be cutting line visible from being off-center, but a stray mark or something.

1966 Topps Gary Cutsinger #52 comes with or without this frame gap around the team logo on back. The cream back comes both ways; I haven't seen it on a white back yet but I haven't looked hard.

And this one is a true variation that I believe has never been mentioned online. Galen Fiss 1963 Topps card #21 had a cut above his eye removed.

His Purple sky card can be found with the cut above his eye present, and the bruising beneath his eye more severe.

The Purple sky card was then adjusted to reduce the bruising and remove the cut above his eye.

The regular version of the card with a proper, blue sky has the cut removed and the bruising beneath reduced further.

The version with the full cut is, I think at this point, pretty difficult.

Hall of Famer Tommy Nobis, #151, comes with and without this red dash beneath his position. Neither is difficult.

Heck, he ain't looking to good...

This one is recurring, but pretty darn rare. Note the big blue cloud everywhere. 1960 Fleer print defects are almost cheating, though. This set was not printed well for some reason, even though Fleer's other card offerings of 1959 and 1960 were just fine. You don't see big problems all the time in the 1959 and 1960 baseballs, for example.

One from a lot in my upcoming Sept auction

Tommy Nobis comes the same way as the Sayers. I found a couple more Sayers on eBay that are listed. It can't be the whole sheet available this way or more would be evident; it looks like it strikes Sayers about as often as it does Nobis. I wonder where they were placed on the sheet.

Like Nobis, there's another version of Sayers, where his name appears fine but a fainter misaligning of ink from the bottom part of the green banner is in the same spot.

Just updating, with 4 different patterns of the yellow. The card bottom left has another version of the same basic problem; a white area right above the defect zone, and the area that is sometimes found erroneously yellow like the 4 at right is pink, not red, unlike the rest of the name box.

Something is a little wrong with Hornung here. Not 100% certain this is an actual printing or production problem yet, but wild looking ones are my favorites.

Anyone have another Hornung like this?

This yellow splotch on Currie is recurring. There's another one on COMC right now.

Bell Rams are not easy anyway

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Blackless

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Miscuts

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The only thing cooler than a misprinted football card is a misprinted football card of Jimmy Johnson.

So there's at least 4 versions of this card, actually. There's another purple sky version that has even more of the cutting and bruising on his face. It really doesn't appear to be stray ink when looked at under magnification.

I don't think this is a print variation so much as a true variation.

1968 Topps 171 Len Dawson comes with or without this black line in the right border. Even on cards off center this way, it seems to be on less than half the cards.

Dawson often comes with this flared lower right (probably a right edge card on the sheet). The copy I have in hand looks the same.

Looks more like a Warhol than a football card.

https://www.net54baseball.com/pictur...ictureid=35079

How ironic is it for the Galloping Ghost to ... have a ghost?

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jeff

Dick Nolan with an awful lot of smearing.

Not sure if recurring, not many people put 1991 Bowman Louis Lipps cards up online for me to look at. Looks like they screwed up the black in an unusual way here.

Not a card many care about, but this defect through his name on the front is recurring and I see a couple on COMC. My factory set card has the defect.

1988 Topps #248 Cardinals Team Card.

#351 Frank Garcia, dotted line running up the top left corner is recurring.

I assume there is no premium on this 'variation' but I will have to check that out and perhaps add that to my Master set. Thanks!

Kyle Rote, #25 in 1953 Bowman comes in 3 varieties.

These 2 patterns of blue splotching above his shoulder are recurring and not that tough to find. Most copies of the card have no splotch.

1968 Topps Ode Burrell comes with this marking/character in the lower left corner from something on the sheet.

In unrelated news, Topps probably could have picked a better photo.

Some of these have more yellow ink in the pennant, some are more orange. PSA doesn't list it as a variation but when I was looking for one I saw plenty of both.

1980 Topps Ink Smudges
 

Here are two 1980 Topps football with ink smudges.

1955 Topps #98 Beattie Feathers comes with or without this red dot next to the All-American set logo. Dot is tougher. Not the most exciting, but this is one of the best football sets issued in my book.

1981 Topps
 

Here are two from the 1981 Topps Set. Riley Odoms has a stray red ink mark next to his position. The Kenny King card on the left is faded.

Art Hunter with a lot of extra blue over the bottom part of the photo and the team logo. Don't think that was intended!

Anyone familiar with this 1977 Walter Payton variation? There were two on the 'Bay last week (one is still there), and although they were different cards (different centering), they both looked off on coloring from the original.

Thought it might be some sort of reprint or Heritage issue or an artifact of the scan. The half missing 'B' in Bears and the lower left corner just look strange as far as print defects.

BTW, 1977 was the first year I collected football cards, and Peyton alluded me all year. Just could not pull one from a pack.

1979 Topps
 

Here is a 1979 Topps Diron Talbert with extra black ink at the top.

The square in the bottom left is definitely from a scanner setting which makes me think the partially missing ‘B’ is also a result of an automatic scanner setting.

Bottom left corner of the purple stat box that contains the card number. It is either correct, or recurringly a misshaped white spot on Dan Darragh #236. 1970 Topps.

And #238 Fred Cox has a similar problem at the top of the write-up box. Both versions are easy, turned out I don't have the correct copy.

1971 Chuck Allen
 

I came across this beautifully miscut Chuck Allen/Ernie Wright card today.

The Curtis Dickey has a print smudge on the lower left and the Jack Snow is one of the best miscuts I've ever seen.

Christmas means taking out some card boxes to play with m Dad; this year it's old football. I am not sure if recurring, but some ink bleed on this 1955 Bowman George Taliaferro, making the lines in the football that holds the card number a solid block. Have never found another but have not worked hard. Might be a RPD.

Card #68 Ben Agajanian has a recurring variation. The yellow rectangle cutout in the upper right of the green backdrop is recurring. The correct copy is more common, but this version is not difficult and there are several on eBay at any given time usually.

Not sure yet if recurring, but 1959 Topps #43 Steve Myrha with green face syndrome. Didn't see any others checking COMC and eBay.

1960 Fleer was a very low quality production. Every card can be found with yellow ink explosions or with a light layer of blue over the majority of the card making players and uniforms look weird but not so obviously wrong.


Here's Curley Johnson with a yellow explosion.

1971 Topps #110 Floyd Little comes with or without a yellow mark on his shoulder. I have 26 copies without, 7 with. All of my copies with it are from the bold print run, no blue tinting, red tinting, or the lighter inking.

All Little's have the blue and red X mark on his pant leg. This problem was never fixed.

Also recurring is this "red face" Al Atkinson, 1971 Topps #48. Pretty much any card can have some kind of ink smear, but this one is a recurring defect in the exact same pattern. Somewhere around 1% of Atkinson's, if I had to guess.

And 1971 Topps #61 Jan Stenerud has a similar red error, with the ink on his face and hair. Stenerud is several rows and columns away from Atkinson's card on the sheet layout.

There are 1983 Topps Bob Kuechenberg cards with the bizarre print line.

Pretty much all the 1962 Post's have this red ink problem as a frequent occurrence, with red spread in some quantity over pretty much the entire picture, creating a purple sky effect like the next years Topps cards.

Came across this one - Christman in the bottom row can be found this way with a little miscutting on 1 in 4 of his appearances on the Leaf sheet.