The '66 Indians Team Variation Train Keeps A-Rollin'...

[JollyElm]

Whoa...this took a dramatic left turn. I began posting in the March Pickups thread when it suddenly dawned on me that I may have possibly found a brand new, third variation of the 1966 Indians Team card. Here's what I had typed:

"This is a card that flies beneath most people's radar, but it is one of the hardest variations to find for your 1966 set, especially in nicer grade. The Indians Team card missing the pink bullet (dot) on front between "PLACE" and "AMERICAN." I jumped out of my shoes to grab these up quickly..."

1966indiansteam303nodotpairb.jpg

But as I was writing it, by looking very closely I could see that even though there is 'nothing' there, the very slightest hint or shadow of a bullet is seemingly present on both of these cards. (The cards themselves were obviously not worked on to nefariously remove anything. There is no indication of that whatsoever.) For comparison, here's a random Indians Team card from ebay to show how bright and obvious said bullet is...

s-l1600-5.jpg

And here is the pair of variations with a 'normal' Indians Team card beside them that I got from the same person at the same time...



Notice how the colors, brightness, contrast, etc., are all very consistent across the trio of cards. In other words, the bullet didn't 'partially' disappear due to a dearth of magenta ink during the print run. If that was the case, the other reds on the card would have been similarly affected.

I've sought out and collected this variation since the 90's, because it is truly hard to find, and have a bunch of them. None of the ones here have the 'shadow' present. I do believe this to be a newfound, third variation of the card!!

Check out yours and see if the shadow shows (knows?).

(Edited to add a larger version of the comparison pic.)