Some pretty cool new(?) 1963 Topps Printing Error/Variations

[Cliff Bowman]

The Ed Sadowski missing top border has been known about for quite a few years now, but as far as I know none of the others pictured have ever been mentioned. Back when eBay would allow you to see what other people had bought recently, I used to check what "LauraSalzy" had gotten because he is the master at buying obscure printing error/variations as quick as unknowing sellers would put them up on buy-it-nows. Anyway, about two and a half years ago I noticed that he had won an auction lot of high number 1963 Topps that included the Ed Sadowski, but it was another card in the lot that caught my eye. I noticed that the Lou Klimchock was also missing the top border, but a smaller section than the Sadowski. It occurred to me that there must have been quite a few in a horizontal row missing the top border, but in varying degrees. "LauraSalzy" himself didn't notice the Klimchock printing error and put the card up for auction as a regular common, but as I was on the way home to snipe it I wrecked my car and missed it. It was the only I had ever seen until I found one recently. Slowly but surely they would pop up until I was confident that there were a total of eight of them, the only ones I needed were Klimchock and an unknown card between Sadowski and the Cardinals team card. Last week I found a mother load of these from everyones "favorite" seller, who shall go unnamed. The Klimchock and the Bell, the only one I have ever seen, were among the ones that he had. So, I am pretty confident that these eight comprise the complete run of cards that were affected on either the top or the bottom of the original uncut printing sheet. I have seen a handful of the Sadowski cards, but all of the others I have seen one or two of each.

[ALR-bishop]

Great piece of hobby sleuthing Cliff

[savedfrommyspokes]

Nice finds Cliff....with the bottom areas all being yellow, it would make since that these cards were all on the same row of the sheet. The 63 Topps #5 NL LL card I have seen (posted here I believe) missing the left border.

[SMPEP]

Cliff - I will second the great sleuthing, but will also add ... you are missing 3 cards. The row would have had 11 cards in it. I bet you'll find them if you keep looking.

Cheers,
Patrick

[ALR-bishop]

Go ahead Patrick, make his day

[Cliff Bowman]

Originally Posted by SMPEP

Cliff - I will second the great sleuthing, but will also add ... you are missing 3 cards. The row would have had 11 cards in it. I bet you'll find them if you keep looking.

Cheers,
Patrick

You are correct that there are eleven yellow bottom cards in that horizontal row, but I am pretty certain that only these eight cards in the row were affected. The Sadowski can often be found with an irregular cut on the left edge which tells me that it was the first card on the row, and the printing flaw ends on the Cook. I would still like to know who the next three are, though.

[Cliff Bowman]

Originally Posted by savedfrommyspokes

Nice finds Cliff....with the bottom areas all being yellow, it would make since that these cards were all on the same row of the sheet. The 63 Topps #5 NL LL card I have seen (posted here I believe) missing the left border.

I was hoping nobody would notice that . I believe ten cards in the first series can be found with the same flaw, but along the left or right side rather than the top. Half of the cards in 1963 were printed upside down. I have found that these are even rarer than the high number printing flaw cards, I am still looking for three of them.

[JTysver]

This is from a piece of paper or tape being left on the negative when they made the plates.
This is not really a variation in my opinion but a printer's error.

[ALR-bishop]

Yes, but so is the 57 Bakep and the 58 Herrer, and maybe the 52 Campos black star or missing front border. All famous "variations".

What is the hobby definition of a true variation anyway ? What is your definition ? Intentional change made to a card ? What about double prints with differences like the 52 Mantle ? Intentional ? Variation ?

PSA has been listing a 61 Fairly with a smudge of green in the baseball on the back as a variation. Is it just a print defect ? Who is to say ? Who is the arbiter ?

No wrong views in my mind. Hobby conundrum. Some variants catch on, others do not. If you have one, it tends to be a variation, or you want it to be

[Cliff Bowman]

Originally Posted by JTysver

This is from a piece of paper or tape being left on the negative when they made the plates.
This is not really a variation in my opinion but a printer's error.

In your opinion, is the 1990 Topps Frank Thomas No Name On Front just a printing error or is it a variation? (Not my card, unfortunately.)

[Kevvyg1026]

The string of 551 (Klaus), 543 (Snyder), and 575 (Caldwell) is at the far right of the yellow banner, blue inset string. As you can see, the missing black line is getting progressively less as you move left-to-right (Sadowski to Cook) so you might just be able to detect it on Klauss but I'm not sure you could see it on Snyder or Cardwell due to the background colorings at top of those cards.