A few thoughts on the *A*B cards.
The process was still very manual, I believe it changed in 92, but the 91s are all a familiar process.
Repeated text would have been done one of a couple ways.
The camera ready art could have the common lines of text pasted in place, with the parts that weren't needed simply cut out.
Or it was blocked on the mask as that part was being set up. (More like the text was all there, and blocked by the mask material and the appropriate bits cut away to reveal the text. )
Topps most probably did a half sheet of camera ready art at a time.
If you notice, the *A only has a space between it and the rest of the text.
So they would have slipped up on the first section of *A sheet and exposed the entire *A*B etc.
Once they decided to fix it, it would be a simple matter of blocking it out with the special red whiteout used in the stripping dept.
It could be fixed on the plate itself, but I would expect they just figured on fixing it when they made another plate for Blue on the back. Otherwise we'd probably see a handful of repairs or incomplete erasures.
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