New scan Sun fading vs blue/no yellow variation: new evidence
 

Hi guys. I picked up a 600 count box of 1977 topps today at the flea market. Nothing special, but this card is very intriguing. As you can see it has green name text on the left that transitions to blue on the right. I do not think half of the card was left out in the sun. The Y on Johnny and o in Oates shows clear transition between blue and green. I am wondering if this lends credence to some of the blue/ no yellow pass variations that are debated on other threads. The catcher sign shows only the faintest hint of a creme hue and the field transitions to an almost black and white appearance. A very cool card and I could not find any others in the group with similar traits although I do plan on checking again. Thoughts?

Thanks Al I did see that thread but this card presents with a much more extreme color field difference, with a green field going to black and white and the blue green and I don’t believe Oates is part of that sheet although I could be wrong.

Bump for a new better scan. Still looking for input on this card.

Looks like a printing issue to me. Can you post a pic of it beside a normal card of the same player? I have a little experience in missing color and faded cards. In hand it is really easy to tell the difference.

Ben, it is absolutely a printing issue where the yellow ink is only present in half the card. I collect print issues as well and this one is interesting because most of the time a color pass miss impacts the whole card not half. If you see a normal 77 Oates the pennant is yellow. This pennant is essentially creme color.

My interest in the card is whether a card can have the appearance of a sun fade but in reality be a print error. The more I think of it though there must be other ways of discerning whether a sun fad or print error is occurring beside just blue lettering vs green.

I couldn't find it but a couple years ago I posted close up pics of a real missing yellow card and one sun faded to show how to tell the difference. Once you have seen several of both it becomes very easy to tell the difference. You also have to take into account different years/brands react differently to fading but all the tells are still there, especially with the ones faded with the sun.

Here is a psychedelic Warren Spahn.:D

It appears to be faded to me. Green to Blue fading is easy on these, I have plenty of the 1977 Topps Star Wars cards printed on the same stock as the baseball issue that have faded due to exposure and look the same way. If it was a print issue, one tell to me would be that the other colors, or parts of the card that don't have any of the inks used to make Green, should not be lighter in tone. The roof over the stands growing lighter in tone with the rest of the card seems to me to be a giveaway. Then again, I've grown suspicious of Green to Blue or Red to Orange "printing errors" as these are the most common exposure damage, and just coincidentally also the majority of supposed printing errors.

Whoa...call me crazy, but I think that's 'Shoeless' Joe Jackson in the background at left!!! :D

Thank you for responding. The reasons I don’t think it is faded is that the blue sky is consistent across the card and the lettering shows signs of decreasing yellow ink, not a hard line of demarcation between green and blue. This is the whole debate I’m having about blue variations and whether some real print errors are being lumped in with fades.

red to orange from fading.:confused: Do you have any pictures of this? I have never seen this or even heard of it in a Post WWII card. I can't even imagine it is possible.