[Kevvyg1026]

I know that Topps printed cards in 132 card half-sheets and understand why many of the card numbers shown on checklists do not necessarily agree with the actual print sheets, but I am curious if any one else has noticed the following conundrum.

Many price guide show the 1963 Topps card values for Series 5 (371-446), Series 6 (447 - 522), and Series 7 (523 - 576) where Series is meant to match up against the actual printing and not the checklist. The 1963 Topps set was printed in a manner that matched up the bottom border colors (i.e., cards in the same row shared the same color bottom border, with cards in alternate rows printed upside down in order to have the same border shared between two rows). Furthermore, Topps used printing schemes that had eleven cards in a row, so this means that a print run should have border colors show up in multiples of 11.

For Series 5, assuming that checklist 362 had a red border and checklist 431 was the yellow border, we get a distribution of 33R, 22Y, and 22B which nicely aligns with the expected print sequences stated in price guides.

However, if Series 6 was printed as shown in the guides (i.e., 447 - 522 plus #431 with a Red border), we get a distribution like 27R, 24Y, and 26B, while Series 7 (523-576 plus 509) yields 18R, 19Y, and 18B. In other words, the row multiples don't match up like they should.

On the other hand, if we let the Series 6 include cards 431 (red variety) plus 447 - 511 (not up to 522), and Series 7 have cards 509, plus 512-576, then the distribution appears like:

Series 6: 22R, 22Y, 22B
Series 7: 22R, 22Y, 22B

I haven't seen any uncut material from either Series 6 or 7 from 1963, but I believe that the proposal I described is what Topps actually did. Then, since each series would have 66 cards, no short prints should exist as all cards would be printed in equal quantities for bot of the last two series.