1973 Topps Printing Sheets

[deweyinthehall]

I've begun gathering images of sheets from 1973, and I believe I've detected a pattern that I'd like to validate.

It appears that each series was printed 1) entirely on a 132-card half sheet, AND 2) on a sheet with 6 repeated rows, 2 times.

For example, here is a full 132-card series 1 sheet and a sheet on which the first 6 rows are printed twice.

Also, here are 2 series 3 sheets which each contain 6 double printed rows.

I don't have any examples where I have all 3 version for a single series - e.g. a 132 card sheet and 2 6x sheets.

So we think each series was in fact printed in this fashion, and is there any reason to think that this then tied into how the cards were distributed - whether by series or all at once?

I have the 2 series 1 sheets shown, a full 132-card series 2 sheet, the 2 series 3 sheets shown, a series 4 sheet with 6 rows (headed by Gene Tenace in the upper left) printed 2x and a series 5 sheet with 6 rows (Twins team in upper left) printed 2x. Any additional sheet images would be appreciated.




Thanks!

[Cliff Bowman]

Kevin studied this extensively, I think he found 66 x 2 sheets for all five Series and 132 card sheets for Series 1 through 3 but not for the 4th and 5th Series if I remember correctly. ETA, I wonder if the variation sheets could be OPC like what happened on the 1976 sheets.

[deweyinthehall]

Originally Posted by Cliff Bowman

Kevin studied this extensively, I think he found 66 x 2 sheets for all five Series and 132 card sheets for Series 1 through 3 but not for the 4th and 5th Series if I remember correctly. ETA, I wonder if the variation sheets could be OPC like what happened on the 1976 sheets.

I wondered about that as well- but upon inspection they all appear to be Topps - you can tell most easily by the checklists.

[deweyinthehall]

I just discovered another pattern - Each card in the set is printed with either 1 or 2 asterisks on the reverse.

Sheets with 66x 2 - all cards have either 1 or 2, the series' other 66x2 sheet will have the opposite.

On the 132 card sheets, the top half have 1 and the bottom half have 2 - never seen a pattern where cards from the same sheet have differing printing asterisks.

[jmoran19]

5th series sheets I have saved. FYI the one I have labeled OPC is same as the Schmidt sheet below. John

[jmoran19]

schmidt

[Zach Wheat]

Originally Posted by deweyinthehall

I just discovered another pattern - Each card in the set is printed with either 1 or 2 asterisks on the reverse.

Sheets with 66x 2 - all cards have either 1 or 2, the series' other 66x2 sheet will have the opposite.

On the 132 card sheets, the top half have 1 and the bottom half have 2 - never seen a pattern where cards from the same sheet have differing printing asterisks.

I thought Topps didn't start using master sheet codes A - F until 1977, and in 1976 started using an "*" to indicate individual cards were updated. Maybe they did not have a consistent use of codes in. Maybe Toppcat can shed light on this issue

[toppcat]

Originally Posted by Zach Wheat

I thought Topps didn't start using master sheet codes A - F until 1977, and in 1976 started using an "*" to indicate individual cards were updated. Maybe they did not have a consistent use of codes in. Maybe Toppcat can shed light on this issue

Not really. Are they saying above that the 73 sheets had A-E codes though?

[Kevvyg1026]

In case you didn't have this

1973_wax_box.jpg

[Kevvyg1026]

I haven't seen the 1973 series 2 sheet with the 66 x 2 configuration, headed by card 173, Hal Breeden. However, it has to exist as this miscut of Gibby shows it below Kelly, meaning that Gibby is in the middle of a sheet.

1973_190_below_Kelly_6x2.jpg