1959 Topps white/gray backs
 

Recently bought a collection of late '50s and early '60s Topps cards and noticed that some of the 1959 Topps 2nd (or 3rd) series cards were available in either a gray or white card stock. Is there any difference in the rarity of the two? The collection that I bought had substantially more of the gray stock cards. Any insight would be appreciated.

Probably get more attention over in the "Postwar Baseball Cards Forum (Pre-1980)" forum... anyway, the gray backs are supposed to be slightly rarer though only occasionally is someone expecting a premium for them. When someone is looking for a premium they might want 10-20% for commons and maybe 25% for stars. This is unusual though - typically folks don't differentiate - and, to the best of my knowledge, most don't bother collecting both stock variations.

I put the 1959 set together a few years ago. The only trouble I had with the gray and white back variations is that most people don't pay attention to them (as Jim mentioned), so they usually aren't mentioned in ebay ads. The (few) brick & mortar stores that carry 1959s never differentiate. Costs were the same. The occasional seller who mentions the back variations tended to claim that whichever one they had was the "rare" version.

Doug