Topps Packaging/Production Timeline Help

[steve B]

May as well combine the answers as I see them to both questions.

west-

Topps process was much more involved at the design/proofing stage than the place I worked. We probably did one or two photographic proofs based on the customers originals. Some jobs there were no proofs at all*.
After that it was probably very similar. Original art was photographed, (Most likely the meaning of the "board X" markings in the sheet margins.
The negatives went to the stripping dept. which mounted them to an opaque paper called a mask, which made it a full plate size negative of sorts.
Then off to platemaking,
Then plates off to the pressroom.

Our place pretty much held the plates in the plate room until the pressroom needed them.
depending on the press, whoever was printing for Topps, Quebecor or anyone, probably would have made the next needed plate as required. So if say yellow was on the press for 3 days, the cyan plate would probably be made on day 3. If they were really adventurous they might have anticipated the overall need and made multiple plates. (If they were using multi- color presses, which seems likely and/or if they were using two presses at the same time they would have had to anyway. And the cost of a spare plate would be small compared to a production delay)

When Tassoni says “The film was sent to us,” Tassoni said. “All we had to do was strip it in.” To me that means they were sent negatives by Topps and their stripping department made the masks.
That really makes sense, especially if you consider the size of a sheet on the press. Shipping a bunch of negatives that big would have been a bit of a hassle.

Which leads into Dylans questions...

the backs would have only required two masks, one for the underlying color, and another for the black.
If one card didn't get a copyright notice, the correction would be to make a copyright notice negative, cut a window for it into the right spot on the mask and put that small negative in place. Probably with the red stripping tape, which would have been kept away from areas intended to print, like borders etc. Or the tape could have been trimmed once it was in place.

So what I think the sequence is -
1) Incorrect plate with no copyright
2) Correct plate with copyright
3? 2A?) The copyright ends up coming off the mask, leaving a nice rectangular hole, which since it's like the light part of the negative ends up as a printed area.
4) That problem is found, and the mask repaired.

Alternately-
A lot of the elements are sent as sort of clip art negatives. Including the copyright notices, and they're added individually.
except one gets forgotten, leaving the same sort of hole.
1) plate with the bar
2)Darn! can't send them out like that! Tape over that thing and make a new plate right away! = No bar, no copyright
3) Guys! it has to have a copyright! How long have we been printing them without it? Ummm….. Ok, I'll have stripping send you a new plate right away. = corrected version with copyright.

Theres some precedent for the secong maybe being right. The 81 fleer were probably done with clip art style borders, and regular scotch tape. You can see that tape in some of the pictures.

If the first is correct, there will possibly be two ever so slightly different correct versions.




*I did a drawing of the High School for the yearbook, and it came back from the yearbook company cut in half. The next school year the school dept wanted to do a print commemorating the remodeling of the school, and they had the place I had worked for do it (No surprise, they did a lot of printing for the town) I brought the original in and told them what was wanted, and they just said "no problem" Never got a proof of any kind.
The final prints were very nice, and they'd fixed some unevenness where the cut was. And on two different sorts of paper! Turns out they did it for free or almost, and used paper leftover from other jobs.