Color Variations and '57 Topps

[ALR-bishop]

Patrick--I am a pretty obsessive variant/error/defect/variations collector. After finishing the Topps sets I did the variations listed in SCD, and to some extent Beckett. The Registry seemed to me to follow SCD. Now that Bob has retired, SCD may be a grandfathered source. Bob was great at looking into new variants people sent him. But, at the end he was leaning towards only listing new cards in which it appeared an intentional change had been made in the card by the manufacturer, a definition that would have excluded even cards like the Herrer, The Bakep and maybe the Campos black star going forward

After doing listed variations I started doing print defects and oddities that appealed to me, and tried to get Bob interested in as many as possible. Given the growing size of the book and the explosion of print defect type differences found due to ebay and the internet, Bob became a tough sell the last couple of years...and rightfully so in my view.

I follow the variation/error listings on ebay constantly, and stuff like blank or wrong backs and color differences do not generate much interest in general...unless recognized through some hobby publication. SCD used to run regular articles discussing variant cards not in the books and debate if they should be. Ones not making it in still had some extra value due to the articles themselves, such as the 1952 Scheib and Woodling border irregularities and the House yellow tiger, all discussed in SCD articles

I have several significant color variations myself ( I have tried to get at least one example for each set), and I did do the 1982 Blackless set. It would be interesting if other 57 collectors had and came forward with other color variants like your

I think you have a neat card and that cards like that add to the value of the set, if not in the market, at least to those who enjoy finding them and adding them to our sets