Calling Ted Z and others- '63 topps?
 

Whats the story behind the '63 topps with the lime green background? Is this similar to the '62's which were subbed out to a co. in philly? Is this background only in the hi numbers? Thanks.

The two on top are examples of the cards in question, the two on bottom are regular b/g for comparison.

I believe the better looking 62's were the ones printed at Zabel in Philly. It's the subbed out cards that had tint issues. I have a theory the sub-out factory was located in Rochester, NY but it's only a hunch.

I think Zabel printed cards for Topps until they moved to Duryea in 1965. There was also a company in Baltimore called Lord Baltimore Printing that also printed some Topps cards in 1954 and probably other years.

Thanks for the reply.

I wonder, why the Green tint background? That Adair up top looks like it's radioactive!

Was Topps' MO to start printing the set in brooklyn,then sub the later series,so as to free them up to start football,etc.?

Well since the green tints
 

Were in the 2nd series in 62; I doubt that they used other printers to free up for football; etc. You know, they were printing a LOT of cards in those days and just may have needed two printers. Also that could explain many of the "minute" variations we've seen over the years, including the recently noted 63 Topps Jim Davenport.

Regards
Rich

I am 95% certain they only made candy and gum (and possibly printed wrappers) in Brooklyn and either trucked or barged in the regularly issued cards to Brooklyn from points outside NYC. They were packaged in Brooklyn is my operating theory. I also think a lot of the misprinted sheets found in the Brooklyn dumpsters,etc. were on the tops and bottoms of stacks of sheets on pallets put on at the point of shipment as protection and then they were discarded at the plant. They may have have some limited card printing capability in Brooklyn too (maybe 24 or 35 card test sheets) even after the move to Duryea but I think the heavy duty press runs were subbed out.

All just an educated guess but I'm pretty sure the majority of cards were printed in Philly/Camden.

Very interesting Reading guys, also on TopCats other post.

I still cant wrap my head around the green background. why?
It appears the faces were "masked off" to print normal with the B/G purposely
tinted green,so a print error it's not. I wonder if a topps sub actually did this to identify their work?


Thanks for the replies.

Well, see my other post in this section. More to come...