Show...me...your print variations!

[4reals]

Hargrove #591 fisheye at the Rangers A




McKay #608 yellow pants




Whitfield #589 yellow astroturf




Stanley #597 double print , topps logo, player name and position can be seen faintly behind team name






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[G1911]

Noticed a mark on my 57 Boyer while playing with my set, the first image with the curley blue shape. I went to see if it was recurring or maybe an after-production mark or damage, and saw 2 other different blue shapes on COMC. Looks like there are at least 4 Boyer cards:

Blue curley shape
Big blue dot
2 very small blue dots
Proper full white border (not pictured)

There may be more.

[G1911]

Also, Hobie Landrith #182 comes with or without blue smearing in the upper right corner of the picture. Blue smear shown.

I apologize if I've posted about this already, I don't think I've heard of it from anyone else but it's tough to keep track to recall them all!

[G1911]

This Grote with a big pink splotch in the bottom banner is recurring, but a pretty tough one to find.

[ALR-bishop]

Is the line on Landrith a mark or a crease ?

[G1911]

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

Is the line on Landrith a mark or a crease ?

A mark, I think. I’m not a printing expert but tons of the 1957 cards have these vertical black marks, that I presume were left by the machines printing them. Personally, I’ve considered them akin to a card being off-center or miscut, damage during production and not a variant.

[G1911]

1963 #522 with Gary Peters can be found with this mark in the lower right, from the sheet. It's not too uncommon, but most have less of the mark visible than this one that is worse cut.

[G1911]

1972 #581 - red mark in upper border. This one is super easy, it's on like 50% of the cards or so.

[G1911]

1972 #619 McKinney comes with or without this slash between "batting" and "record". Both versions are common and easy to find. I don't think this has been mentioned but I feel like I have talked about this with some of you guys offline

[ALR-bishop]

The McKinney has some front oddities too. My slash occurs on his "normal" card

[G1911]

Looks like I have more McKinney’s to chase down. Thank you Al

[GasHouseGang]

I posted this card in the monthly pickups, but then realized it might be a print variation too. There is one print variation being sold on Ebay as a "red blotch" variation. This card has part of that, it has a red stripe at the back of Luke's hat. Anyway, just one of many leaf variations.

[ALR-bishop]

Good one David

[4reals]

74 Topps Traded Jim Ray #458T - blue dot in upper right background




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[G1911]

#134. Black dot in upper right. This version with the dot is more common, seems like maybe 3/4 cards that are centered properly have the black mark.

[G1911]

#136 in the 73 set, Earl Weaver with the brown background has this black line as a recurring variant. I haven't looked carefully, but don't have it on the orange background version of Weaver's card.

[G1911]

#139 comes with or without a small pink mark (it's much more noticeable in hand than the photo) below the "h" in "Chicago". Cards with the mark are a minority, maybe 10% or less I think but I haven't checked that carefully.

[G1911]

#169 Schueler also has a black dot in the upper right corner. Maybe 50% of cards, both versions are easy.

[G1911]

#182 Mike Caldwell has 2 recurring defects. The first is the blue streaking around his waist. In hand it is clearly in part of his jersey as well. The second is a black streaking in the upper left corner, to varying degrees.

The correct card is the vast majority of Caldwell's.

[G1911]

#184 Buford has black streaking on the right side, on the left side, both sides, or neither side. The clean Buford without black ink running seems to be least common to me.

Pictured is the both sides version.

[G1911]

And Bob Gibson has black splotching in upper right, black dot in upper right, and black streaking in upper left as well as a clean card. I think the dot is fairly tough, but it is recurring.

[ALR-bishop]

Someone is on a roll

[G1911]

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

Someone is on a roll

Can you tell which set I've had out today?

#258 Tommy John has black streaking or a single vertical black line in the lower right by the position bubble. It can be found in many, many different varieties, probably well over a dozen patterns. Here's just one example image. It's easier to steal COMC scans than to edit my phone pics to meet Net54's low-quality only image limits.

[G1911]

296 Jose Cruz can be found with damage to the black in lower left. This is recurring; not just a one off with a poor black ink pass. Fairly tough.

[G1911]

397 Dave Cash has this blue streaking from his arm down into the name and team name. Recurring (10% maybe?), on a minority of cards.

[ALR-bishop]

[butchie_t]

Anyone have a list of the border break cards in the 73 set?

The way it looks one could just about complete a base set and a separate variation set of the 73 Topps set.


I picked up this version the other day. Bottom coach has a hat and not much else.

[Cliff Bowman]

Originally Posted by G1911

397 Dave Cash has this blue streaking from his arm down into the name and team name. Recurring (10% maybe?), on a minority of cards.

I have around 15 of the 1973 Topps Dave Cash roller mark print errors, everyone one of them is different than the other. The 1973 Topps 5th Series 397-528 is plagued with recurring print errors, the Jerry Reuss seems to be the rarest.

[4reals]

Cliff, since you brought up the roller streaks I have a question. I always considered these to be in the no big deal category because when I have time to sift through vintage commons they are abundant but since you have 15 of them it sounds like you collect them to some extent.

My question is, and I ask this of anyone willing to respond, what are the least interesting or least desirable print variations/anomalies to chase or add to your collection and which are the most desirable?

Fisheyes/bullseyes?
Roller marks/streaks?
Random border dots?
Smeared ink?
Solution spills?
Ink transfer?
Ghosting?
Offset color creating a border void?
Offset color changing the color of an object?
Missing ink?
Border breaks?

These are not the only options, feel free to add something I may have neglected.


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[4reals]

As you guys know, I only chase Dodgers variations. Here are my 1973 contributions:









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[Cliff Bowman]

Originally Posted by 4reals

As you guys know, I only chase Dodgers variations. Here are my 1973 contributions:









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That Willie Crawford is awesome. Quite a few cards on the 1973 1st Series sheet are plagued by the excessive yellow ink like your Bill Russell. I probably have 10-15 of the 1973 Dodgers team card with that huge black ink blob. It never caught on so like many other non sought after print errors I quit looking for it after a while.

[Cliff Bowman]

Originally Posted by 4reals

Cliff, since you brought up the roller streaks I have a question. I always considered these to be in the no big deal category because when I have time to sift through vintage commons they are abundant but since you have 15 of them it sounds like you collect them to some extent.

My question is, and I ask this of anyone willing to respond, what are the least interesting or least desirable print variations/anomalies to chase or add to your collection and which are the most desirable?

Fisheyes/bullseyes?
Roller marks/streaks?
Random border dots?
Smeared ink?
Solution spills?
Ink transfer?
Ghosting?
Offset color creating a border void?
Offset color changing the color of an object?
Missing ink?
Border breaks?

These are not the only options, feel free to add something I may have neglected.


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My personal favorites are too much ink/ink explosions and partially missing borders/partially missing black ink which are from the final step of the printing process of a card.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by Cliff Bowman

I have around 15 of the 1973 Topps Dave Cash roller mark print errors, everyone one of them is different than the other. The 1973 Topps 5th Series 397-528 is plagued with recurring print errors, the Jerry Reuss seems to be the rarest.

Is this Reuss recurring? Pretty cool one. '73 has been low on my priority list so I'm certainly less knowledgeable on this set than most of you guys.

I never know how to catalog cards like the Cash, the 59 Sauer, where there is a recurring problem but that problem manifests into essentially unlimited slightly different versions. Makes it difficult to track on my spreadsheets my % of completion of a 'total master'.

[Cliff Bowman]

Originally Posted by G1911

Is this Reuss recurring? Pretty cool one. '73 has been low on my priority list so I'm certainly less knowledgeable on this set than most of you guys.

Yes, but it is very rare. I bought my first one on COMC for a few dollars and then I saw one on Dean's Cards for $1 because they thought it was damaged (paper loss?) and I haven't seen one since, of course Al has one .

[Kevvyg1026]

Originally Posted by Cliff Bowman

My personal favorites are too much ink/ink explosions and partially missing borders/partially missing black ink which are from the final step of the printing process of a card.

Those three cards are consecutive in the Bob Johnson row of the series 5 issue. Nice find!!

[ALR-bishop]

The 67s Cliff posted are tough

[G1911]

Thank you gentlemen, I got a few more to go chase!

Al - what's the difference between the 2nd and 3rd 1973 Dick Williams cards? My eyes must be failing me on spotting this one.

[butchie_t]

Originally Posted by G1911

Thank you gentlemen, I got a few more to go chase!

Al - what's the difference between the 2nd and 3rd 1973 Dick Williams cards? My eyes must be failing me on spotting this one.

Vern's ear is missing on one and not the other.

So for all the 73 variations you have, do you have a list of them? I am chasing down all the print breaks and am not sure I have found/documented all of them yet.

[Deertick]

Only two of my 73's that aren't just fisheyes

[ejstel]

Dont't forget the 1973 Quilici 'Ghostface Coaches' card

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[G1911]

Originally Posted by butchie_t

Vern's ear is missing on one and not the other.

So for all the 73 variations you have, do you have a list of them? I am chasing down all the print breaks and am not sure I have found/documented all of them yet.

Ah, thank you!

I keep a Numbers (Apple's Excel) spreadsheet with a tab for every year from 1952-1973 (and a separate sheet for Bowman's, football cards, and tobacco sets I collect) with the complete checklist, notating which ones I have and don't have, the condition of my copy, and a line entry for every variation and card I consider to be a RPD (all our definitions are slightly different). The variations I have listed are gathered from the Standard Catalog, what I have noticed, and what people have shared with me here and elsewhere. Some years are pretty detailed and probably 'close to somewhat complete' (like 1956) and others are not very good. Some years I've gotten lazy and not yet included a separate line for every stock variation (Like 68/69/70), but I think most of you guys don't do cream vs. white stock. My 73 list is probably one of the worst as I've only recently included it in my run and I certainly have significantly less than some of you guys.


I don't think I can take an export of my sheet to an Excel file format and attach here on the board, but anyone interested, DM me your email and what year(s) you collect. It's an inventory tracker/personal annotation list and also a checklist so my Notes and Grade columns and color coding are garbage to anyone else, but maybe some of the lists can help.

[Deertick]

Note Messersmith 'beard' and Niekro dot pairs appear to be just a few sheets apart as the defect gets lighter.
The color shifts are interesting, but I wonder if the missing ink at the 't' for Maris is a one-off? You can also see the distinct purple v blue on Brooks. Campy hard to tell, but missing yellow along top and rh edge.

[G1911]

Holt comes with or without this black vertical slash below the cartoon. Both copies are easy.

[ALR-bishop]

Originally Posted by butchie_t

Vern's ear is missing on one and not the other.

So for all the 73 variations you have, do you have a list of them? I am chasing down all the print breaks and am not sure I have found/documented all of them yet.

Bob Lemke initially started including border breaks in the Standard Catalog 73 checklist. And PSA picked those up. But Bob stopped listing them when he realized how many there were, not only in 73 but in many sets. It was about that time he narrowed his definition of a variation he would include in the Catalog to cards intentionally changed by the manufacturer. But he found that was it was often hard to determine if a card met that definition as well.

Butch--Cliff helped me put together my list of border break cards in the 73 set. It is a very long one. If he does not have his handy I can put together a list for you of what I have

[butchie_t]

Thanks for the info Al.

[4reals]

I just picked this up on ebay. Seller has others and took a 50% off offer. Search “missing most black ink”




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[ALR-bishop]

"missing most black ink" has no charm. Fred's Blacklessing or Gray Ghosts had more pizzas. Transition cards in first row below

[ejstel]

Thoughts 1969 Don Wilson - saw this one recently that wasn't fully air brushed...any thoughts on what on the cap?

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[4reals]

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

"missing most black ink" has no charm. Fred's Blacklessing or Gray Ghosts had more pizzas. Transition cards in first row below

Haha, perhaps the lack of charm is what destined the card to still find its home with me! I agree though, not many guy more charming than Fred!


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[ALR-bishop]

No one has ever had a higher regard for his cards than Fred