A little late to this party but......
You know, I think there is a cropping issue with checklist #192 similar to that seen on other cards in the series. If you look at the black line up the left side, it creeps further on to the wood grain and extends higher up the card on the "normal" version as opposed to the green one.
The "Greenies" series as got to be the most fascinating variation situation in the hobby. I love it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JollyElm
Here's some insight into what I'm thinking. The green tints run from #110 to 196, which means a total of 87 cards (if we assume the misnumbered card #139 of Hal Reniff fills the spot of card #159). This total includes the #192 checklist card. I don't know the official methods of Topps sheet printing, but I do know they usually included the checklist for the next series in the print runs (a marketing ploy to get us kids to continue buying cards to get these 'phantom' cards which weren't actually available until later). So, if that additional checklist is added, then we come to a total of 88 cards. This is an aspect of green tints that I have never seen mentioned before in discussions of the phenomena--this extra checklist that isn't a part of the 110-196 schematic.
All the green tint cards are cropped differently (in most cases, just slightly) and show a distinct muddy, blurry appearance with the color balance being way off. The cards are really murky. However, checklist #192 doesn't show any of these characteristics and checklist #277 (which I assume would be the additional checklist I talked about above) doesn't either. Perhaps this is due to the lack of a photograph being featured on the front? Checklist #192 does have an anomaly between the two versions, being found either with or without a comma after "Check List" in the bottom left, which means they were surely the result of two different layouts, but checklist #277 has only the slightest differences between the two versions. Some call it darker vs. lighter wood grain, but the clear telling point is the check boxes being much lower with regard to the numbers beside them. But this is pretty minor overall, and if you transpose the names of the players from the two versions of this card, they match up perfectly. It seems odd that all the players' cards would be re-laid out by the 'new' printer, but the checklists would remain virtually unchanged.
It's frickin' really late and I've taken an ambien (I know, TMI), so I hope I'm explaining this all correctly, but part of my goal in finding some pics of uncut sheets would be to see what was going on with the checklists and to determine if they were in fact printed along with the other cards. Based on their distinct lack of murkiness, it's possible they weren't included on those sheets…but the chance of that is probably remote.
If anyone has some good insight into the Topps printing process, please chime in and edify us.
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