Asterisks
 

As I've been making my way through the Topps sets of the 1970s and 1980s, I began wondering what the purpose of the asterisks on the reverse could possibly be.

From 1978 to 1984, all cards have a single asterisk. Since they ALL have it, it begs the question of what was it there for?

In 1977 and 1976, there are 2 sheets with 1, 2 sheets with 2 and 1 sheet with none.

In 1975 and 1974, 3 sheets each have 1, and 2 have 2.

Does anyone know what they were meant for?

I had initially thought they were used to ID which half of the full 264 card sheet each particular card had been cut from. But, that doesn't stand up to observation.

Thanks!

To your last point, in some non-baseball sets it is definitely to denote which half sheet the card was on (like 1977 Star Wars, creating a variation on almost all of the cards).

The 1973 Blue Team Checklists and the 1974 Green Team Checklists each can be found with one asterisk or two asterisks. Why? I don't know. I spent a small fortune completing both sets in each variation, mainly on the '73s.

The asterisks were used so the Art Dept in Brooklyn knew which part of a full press sheet (264 cards usually) they were looking at when the proofs came in from the printer. Not sure what they did before this practice started (1972?) but I got that from someone who worked at Topps.

But if ALL cards in a set - regardless of placement on either side of the full sheet - have a single asterisk, it's hard to see what they were going for or how it would help.

I'm not doubting it...I just can't see the utility of it.

It would make more sense if the asterisks were used to denote which slit a particular card was on in the days of issuance by series, where each slit was a but different than the other (usually).

Is there any variance in the half sheet arrays from 78-84? I'm not sure of the first set that was delineated like this but it seems to roughly coincide with the end of series-by-series issuance. Your observation of the 70's press sheets is a curious finding. Of potential interest, the backs were printed at different printers than the fronts.

I'm going to check my files-I may have the e-mail explaining this somewhere but it was from a while back.

Possibly some good info here: https://forums.collectors.com/discus...-and-asterisks

Cliff---is that when you ins inserted the moron quote ? :)

I borrowed those quotes from two esteemed members a few years ago, although I forget exactly who said that particular one now.

OK, found some of what I was looking for. This is a layout sheet prepared by Topps to show the printer how to set up the 1976 Star Trek stickers that came to me from Lonnie Cummins. Note how the A slit has one * designated and the the B Slit has two **. So this is the "how" I guess.

I'm still looking for another piece of this (the "why"), possibly an e-mail from Jay Lynch mentioning why this was put into place by Ben Solomon, but it may be lost or I am mis-remembering who sent it to me.

Cliff, you are not alone with this. I blame Al..... ;-) I kid, I kid....