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.)

[vintagebaseballcardguy]

Hey, Darren, you don't know me. I don't post much any longer, but I wanted to come out of the shadows to say thanks. I sincerely enjoy your posts. The analysis and attention to detail you give the cards of the '60s and '70s is really awesome. You have opened my eyes to the fact that there are still collectors out there who enjoy cards from this era in their natural state and who really get to know their cards, rather than just buying something, sticking it in a box, and moving on to whatever is next. Keep it up. I enjoy reading.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

[JollyElm]

Originally Posted by vintagebaseballcardguy

Hey, Darren, you don't know me. I don't post much any longer, but I wanted to come out of the shadows to say thanks. I sincerely enjoy your posts. The analysis and attention to detail you give the cards of the '60s and '70s is really awesome. You have opened my eyes to the fact that there are still collectors out there who enjoy cards from this era in their natural state and who really get to know their cards, rather than just buying something, sticking it in a box, and moving on to whatever is next. Keep it up. I enjoy reading.

Yowza! Thank you for that. You almost made me cry. I'm glad as heck that other people enjoy the cool things that come up from time to time. It certainly makes collecting fun (when it's not as frustrating as all hell).

[JollyElm]

And what's a variation thread without a progression:

1. No bullet
2. Phantom bullet
3. Full bullet

[ALBB]

and Dots the truth !

[ALR-bishop]

Great detective work as usual Darren

[JollyElm]

In case the dead horse hasn't been beaten enough, here's an animated gif of the three variations...

[steve B]

Unless it's just the scan, the one without the dot has the black/gray screened differently too.
Is the dot pattern on that panel slightly angled as opposed to straight across like the other two seem to be?

[JollyElm]

Originally Posted by steve b

unless it's just the scan, the one without the dot has the black/gray screened differently too.
Is the dot pattern on that panel slightly angled as opposed to straight across like the other two seem to be?

Hey Steve. When you're talking about "the one without the dot," are you referring to the one with literally no trace of a bullet or the no-bullet version that actually has a phantom bullet present? I'm assuming you mean the former, but unfortunately I only have a high res scan of the dot patterns of the phantom bullet (left) and the full bullet (on the right, although it doesn't actually show the bullet area) at the moment...

1966indians303highdefpixels2b.jpg

LMK and I'll see if I can get a scan up later if necessary.

[savedfrommyspokes]

Nice find Darren, may the search (for undiscovered, obscure variations) continue.

[JollyElm]

Here's the dot pattern on a pair of 'no bullet' (whatsoever) cards...

1966indians303highdefpixels3a.jpg

[steve B]

those look pretty much identical. So what I was seeing was just the scans.

Cool variations.