Some 80 year old guy started all this ? :)

I'm not sure we can reliably say "All" although I'd readily agree to "most" or even "nearly all"

The partial sheet shown here is unevenly faded, but shows the surrounding cards. http://toppsarchives.blogspot.com/2010/05/88s-key.html

The masks used to make the plates were assembled by hand, and an error wouldn't be entirely unheard of. I'm not entirely sure if they used a photo negative of the entire sheet and masked off portions or used some other method,(Portions of a sheet more likely, individual cards possible but unlikely) but there are differences throughout Topps production. With the white/yellow team or player name cards we know that the yellow part of things was redone at least once.

Topps didn't necessarily use a strict CMYK setup, and the blue used wasn't always a straight Cyan. Going away from true Cyan means custom mixing the color, and that was done manually. So there will be different shades of the blue used. inking levels, water levels, and stuff done to adjust the thickness of the ink could also change the look.

There are a few ways a color can be missing. Some affect only part of a plate -1990 Thomas no name and the others were probably from tape blocking part of the light while the plate was being exposed. A sheet can get folded over blocking part of the print. Foreign material can get into the press blocking some portion of the print. Some of these would produce only one card, some more than one.

1982 blackless are their own puzzle. Topps at the time printed large sheets which were dual 132 card sheets that got cut down into 132 card sheets probably to make handling easier. Usually those sheets were not the same sheet but two different sheets side by side. To only affect half of that large sheet would require some odd circumstances. I believe the late 50's sheets were also printed as dual sheets as there are usually two different sheets for each series.

A genuine blue 58 Topps Aaron may be a unicorn, but may also be a findable unicorn. The hard question is how to tell for sure.

Steve B

1982 Blackless
 

I think I have a full set of Blackless and it numbers 396, although one seller claims several variation ( 8) Blackless cards as well ( making a "master" set 404). It involved the A, B and C sheets. In addition you can do what one seller calls a Blacklessing set, which involves gray instead of no black. I have a bunch of the Blacklessing cards but never did the whole set that way

^^I 100% agree.^^ There are a lot of things I don't know about cards but I am an expert in this small area. I have never seen a real 58 Aaron Blue error card and that includes everyone pictured on Net54 and the ones I have seen on eBay/internet. This particular year just fades super easy.

In hand when you know what to look for they stick out like a sore thumb.

Steve - please go look at post #27 in this thread. I used to think the blue Aaron was legit because of the very sheet you showed ... but read my comments (especially on Burdette and Logan). It's pretty obvious that this sheet faded from sun exposure -it's not evidence of a blue Aaron. In fact it is just the opposite.

Cheers,
Patrick

Yes, faded for sure. And as I said unevenly.

I was going to point out that the Aaron and at least a couple cards around it have the white/yellow letters variation, and that if someone was working from the top to the bottom of the sheet making the masks Aaron is the first card with a green background. If someone was going to make a mistake in removing yellow and remove the entire background instead of just the part where the name is that would be the most likely place for it to happen.

Steve B
* Who really needs to shorten some posts so he doesn't forget some of the main points :o

For what its worth, I bought a common 1958 Topps card about 10 years ago at a show from an album of 50 cent cards definitely missing the yellow overprint which is why I bought it. You could tell the guys face looked black and white ..... very cool error I think. I will try and dig it out of my boxes to tell you more.... sadly for this forum Im so bad with computers I may not be able to scan it but maybe one of my kids can help me get it posted. So dont write the whole thing off as a phoney yet!!!

Would love to see your card. If you need any help posting the picture feel free to PM me and I will do my best to help get it posted. Real missing yellow cards are almost as rare as a unicorn. I have seen less than 5 in 30 years.

Blue
 

Nice-- I assume from your post that you just bought the Aaron and not the album or some of the other yellow less cards in it.

No like I said its a common 1958.... the only one Ive ever seen. The only other time I saw a card I thought looked weird that I bought was just recently the last card in the 1949 Bowman high numbers at a show for 5 bucks sold as a common.... had what I thought was missing color also although now after some research I think its one of the ones referred to as "SLATE".... I think its cool also.

Nice-- what do you collect besides "weird" cards. :) If you have not browsed through the variations thread on this page, you can find a lot of weird stuff there

By the way, welcome aboard

I cant even say what I collect.... all sports, mostly paper, anything that "not everyone has" which means nothing after 1980, love to find unusual stuff at low prices even if its not going to be a big money maker, just to say I have something rare. My wife sez Im nuts which is basically right for any collector I think. Today hauled home a Foreman VS Ali pennant from the "Fight of the Century", some Jacksonville Suns minor league generic forms from 25 years ago (not filled out) and some Between the Acts cigar arena cards from about 100 years ago. More junk for the boxes!! Anyhow, I DID find the 1958 yellow-less card, it is a Dick Williams ....ex condition, could it be faded??? I guess so, but definitely no yellow at all. Remember, I found it with an album of about 100 other 1958s and none of them looked like this because I searched before I bought this one. Will try to get it scanned but my kids will have to help me.

Thoughts on this one?
 

Hello everyone. Sorry to bump an old thread but was just thinking what to do with this card? Was thinking of selling but I don't really know what to make of these blue ones.

What I know about my copy is I've had it since the 1990's,I bought it from a local shop as a teenager for 40 bucks I think (my first Hank Aaron card). It wasn't sold as any variation, I don't think any variations were known at the time. I had it for years and it's always been blue, I never had it in any light! Mine is a deep blue almost turquoise. I got graded fairly recently, had it raw for probably a little under 20 years. Seems some fall into the "every one is light altered" camp and others think there were factory issued. I find it interesting that the green ones, some have white names (with bottom words still in yellow) or yellow names with yellow team name.

I think it's a really neat card but am unsure what to do with it if I were ever to want to sell it. Just figured I'd add mine to the thread and hear some thoughts... Thanks

That card is 100% faded from light exposure. Your card has a few signs that is is faded and not a real missing/low yellow ink card.

Thanks for response Ben, what shows that it's light exposure?

I'm interested in hearing any/all points of view.

I added a couple more angles ...

Also, excuse my ignorance, What is the reason for some green background ones have white name and yellow on bottom, and others being all yellow name/team?

Here's the basic problem with these: if you can manufacture one with sunlight and time, which I have seen people actually do with other green cards from the set, then there is no way to know whether you are buying a faded card or a print freak. It kills the marketability of the card IMO.

In hand it is really easy to tell if they are a print freak or faded. Even with most pictures it is very easy to tell the difference.

Here's a "blue" 1959 Topps Ernie Banks that recently showed up on eBay for a tidy sum. It's obviously a card that sat in a glass display case at a sports card store exposed to sunlight. The green area is where the price tag was that sheltered that small area from sunlight.

If not for the price sticker leaving the green(yellow ink) it probably would have sold for much more.

I disappoint people on their rare missing ink cards all the time. Bad part is most think their card is the only real one and the rest are altered.

"It's not easy staying green"... Kermit

"I see fields of blue..."..... L Armstrong

Green, green
It's green they say
On the far side of the hill

....I'm going away to where the grass is bluer still