An excellent guide!
52 Topps are my specialty, and I have some thoughts.
1) For what it's worth, I can confirm as well the availability of the high numbers outside of the east. I know an area collector who grew up in the suburbs of Kansas City in the early 50s, and managed during that time to assemble a complete set of '52s including the highs, though he recalled, it was with some difficulty. It was only the local Rexall that stocked the high series.
2) Count me as a doubter of the official story that the high series was unplanned or rushed. I think the sixth series was planned, but the execution was botched, and so Topps in later years spun a more romantic tale of the sixth series being unplanned, rather than a blown marketing job.
Indeed there are some aspects of the cards that seem rushed (such as the issues with the nameplates), but earlier cards had problems as well. Note the Goodman 23 card, and its badly crooked lettering in the name plate. And the quality issues with the nameplates belies the absolutely outstanding artistic quality of the images themselves. They're so distinct, that I would argue that even a lay person could pick out a high number from a bunch of commons, because the level of artistry and skill in the colored renderings is so great. One need only compare the work on Bob Kelly or Chuck Dressin, compared to 1st series efforts like Cliff Chambers or Jim Russell.
There are two logical conclusions: 1 is that Sid Berger and his cohorots were responsible, as they have claimed, for doing all the artwork themselves. Their increased skill would therefore show in the high quality of the work on the high series, but also belie claims that they were rush jobs. The other possibility is, if it WAS a rush job, they hired outside help from artists or experts with flexichrome. I can't answer this question, and perhaps someone else can.
The other reason why I don't hold to the high series being rushed, is it just does not make sense to me that, if it was unplanned, why such big name players would've been excluded. If they had only planned 310 cards, why weren't Mantle, Robinson, Campy or Reese already released? If the highs were a rush job, I'd expect the makeup of the players to be much more scattershot...lesser known players, rookies, managers, coaches.
Instead, they front load the series. Look at cards 311-315: Mantle, Robinson, Thomson, Campanella and Durocher. Those are not after thoughts. Rather the high series feels to me like a pretty textbook marketing ploy...keep the kids buying the cards looking for the favorites, and hold back the best ones until the last series, so you've maximized your profit.
It does seem clear they had somewhat anticipated the drop off in interest, and attempted to compensate by frontloading with players from a region with teams at the Series. The bevy of New York and New England players bespeaks to a targeted roll out. But I think they overplayed their hand, and the sales in and around New York did not take up the slack for the weaker sales outside the region, hence their troubles in offloading the highs, and their subsequent scarcity.
So I think the high numbers were planned, but the marketing and sale was botched. So in later years, Berger, who already seems to be something of a yarn spinner, what with his tales of dumping cards in the river, opted to create a more "aw shucks" story about the Topps set being so successful, they wanted to give the kids even more cards. It sounds a lot more gee whiz and altruistic than the former story, which is a little more cynical in tone, relying upon a pretty calculated marketing ploy to keep kids buying cards,looking for their favorite players.
That is, at least, my interpretation in my experience as a 52 topps specialist. The Topps guide is outstanding, and I've already downloaded a copy for my reference library!
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