Posted By:
boxingcardmanThe distinction is over whether we can see an item was distributed.
A blank back stems from the pressman not putting a sheet through the press or possibly from a sheet not getting back ink for some reason. The card wasn't caught and was cut and packed into product. It is a subspecies of printing error, which is a card that had something go wrong in the printing process, whether it is missing ink, wrong ink, misalignment, running one side upside down, miscutting, etc. Something went wrong in the process, wasn't caught, and the item went out with the error.
A proof is an intentionally-produced partial printing used to check how the item looks. [Question: has anyone ever seen any proofs of card backs? I know I've seen Topps Vault card backs but I can't recall ever seeing anything like it with T cards]
A printer's scrap is a catch-all for anything that survived in other than uncut sheet form that clearly wasn't packed into product, which is the conclusion deduced from rough handcut borders.
A blank back could be either scrap or issued; unless the borders show clearly one way or the other any conclusion is speculative.
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