1989 Topps baseball missing magenta ink on reverse
 

Hello, everyone! Anyone besides me ever find any 1989 Topps baseball cards missing the magenta ink on the back? I just came across this Sheffield rookie that I had pulled from a wax pack in '89. I wasn't in a position to build the '89 set that year so I just put it away without further thought. But now that I am building a set, I pulled out all my '89s to sort, at which point I "rediscovered" this oddity. Attached are images showing the affected card and a "normal" one. Again, anyone recall finding any like this?

I'm sure you also have noticed that you have 2 different croppings of the front picture also?

Yes, I noticed that too, but I was more curious about the missing ink. What is the deal with the photo variation, by the way?

Check the lower left corner of the card on the right. I think they just re-cropped to get rid of that machine mark on the photo.

Interesting card.

Missing colors are unusual. I have a couple but they aren't common even with the late 80's sets.

The cropping of the picture is fascinating. once in a while there's a card with the tape showing where the negative was taped to the mask.

But with this it looks like the picture slipped in relation to the frame during the artwork stage and the plates were used.

It's possible they discovered that early on and made new plates. The "bad" sheets would have been used during press setup and a sheet or two got mixed in with the production sheets.

Steve B