1960s Topps mini mystery
 

Hey gang! Picked up this Topps flexichrome of Syracuse great and pro football HOFer John Mackey. Like most of these, I am amazed by the detail and the beauty they can produce through this process. Trying to figure out when and why this was produced. I don't believe the art was ever used. If I had to guess, based on the image and the timeframe when Topps employed this process, this was probably produced after Mackey's rookie year in 1963. Topps lost the rights to NFL players and moved to the AFL for 1964-1967. I am wondering if this was produced in 1964 before Topps was aware that they would only be doing AFL players. The flexichrome process was abandoned I think by Topps during these years, so this would not have been something Topps did after they got the rights to NFL players back in 1968. Anybody have any thoughts?

Lots of photos Topps photographers sent in were filed away and not used. I have a couple of images that Topps didn't use during the players career but later were used on some insert cards featuring players from the past years after they retired.

A lot of this material was auctioned off in the late 80's by Topps.

The person I got this from did in fact indicate that he got the artwork at the 89 Topps Auction along with another baseball flexichrome that was used for an issued card. I was able to see the baseball artwork listed in the auction catalog but did not see the Mackey artwork listed. Certainly Topps pulled in many photos that were never used (or used many years after the image was taken), but seems odd to have had an artist take the time to colorize this photo through the flexichrome process if they had lost the rights to publish NFL players. Just looking for thoughts or theories!