Posted By:
Dave HornishAll:
Regarding some recent posts, Topps printed cards on 132 card sheets from 1957 until the late 1980's at least. I erred earlier, the Wash Nat'l variations, as Ted basically points out, run up through #396, or that sheet at least (132, 264, 396, 528, 660 are the multiples), not the sheet ending at #264 (note to self, check sources before posting). The array is twelve rows of eleven cards and many Topps variations are therefore found in multiples of 11 (1958 White/Yellow variations are like this as an example). Topps would double print rows on some sheets, so short and double prints are usually multiples of 11 as well.
1973 Topps was issued in both series and "All 660" form, the first time this was done. 1974 Topps was theoretically issued as a run of one full set but there is some evidence of a multiple series release as well, possibly due to how the cards were inserted into the packs once cut. Sears sold complete sets of 1974 Topps in a display box in their catalog and I wonder which variety of Padres/Wash. cards was in those sets. #599, a four player rookie card, has a Wash variation for one of the players-it wasn't caught apparently. So it seems all the Padres cards were at least proofed as Wash cards first, then changed. The lower numbers must have been printed first, caught, and changed on a second run while the last two sheets were caught and the Wash cards all changed to Padres variants prior to insertion into packs.