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Originally Posted by SMPEP
To add to Al's answer ... I think there is some consensus among advanced collectors of both sets that the 1952 Topps gray backs were NOT issued in Canada, but the 1954 Topps gray backs WERE issued in Canada.
I seem to recall reading an article a few years back about a couple guys who trekked across Canada on buying trips in the 1980's(?) and they reported they very regularly found 1954 gray backs, but they never once found 1952 Topps grey backs.
I will say I once went through a very large dealer collection in So Cal ... he had 1952 gray backs (he had no idea what they were) but despite having probably 10,000 1954 cards he didn't have one single 1954 gray back.
Anecdotal evidence for sure ... but every story I've heard confirms these findings.
Cheers,
Patrick
Ps - If you are selling 1954 gray backs - let me know. I still need a few for my set.
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I don't mean to digress here but I believe part of the confusion with '52 gray backs arises from the 1952 Topps salesmen samples. Some of these samples have a yellow sticker added to the cards which indicate "they" were made in London, Ontario.
At that time, OPC was primarily a gum manufacturer and OPC was looking to distribute sports cards with their product. There is some evidence Topps & OPC were discussing licensing agreements at that time, culminating in 1958. I believe discussions resulted in 1952 salesman's samples which were created for the jobbers selling OPC's products. To make it clear the retailers were actually buying a Canadian product versus a US product, they added a sticker stating "Made in London Ontario" which was added to the back of the 1952 Topps salesmen samples. The sticker, of course, was referring to the gum and not the baseball card.
This is all conjecture of course, but seems to fit many of the facts
Z