[Cliff Bowman]

I mentioned this on the new variation site but it was probably confusing to most people reading it. I have shown these here before but I never mentioned the coolest part about them. The 1980 Topps cards of Ruppert Jones and Mike Vail can be found with a printing flaw where something partially blocked the final black ink print run. The 1980 Topps cards of Phil Niekro and Lee Mazzilli can also be found with the nearly identical print flaw. After some investigating I realized that Jones and Vail were the last two cards on the eighth horizontal row of the B* sheet and that the Niekro and Mazzilli cards were in the same exact spot on the D* sheet, the last two cards on the eighth horizontal row. That tells me that the blockage was on the printing press, so that when the full 264 card A* and B* sheet was put through the printing process a certain number of the sheets were printed with the flaw. At some point the 264 card A* and B* sheet was replaced by the 264 card C* and D* sheet with the blockage still on the printing press so that a certain number of that sheet were also printed with the same identical flaw. I have never been able to find any examples of the two cards in that spot on the F* sheet, the Yankees team card and the Indians team card, so I don't know if it also affected the 264 card E* and F* sheet.