seeking knowledge re: 1955 Topps baseball sheets

[ClementeFanOh]

Hi all- I'm putting out the bat signal for anyone with knowledge about
player placement in 1955 Topps baseball sheets. A friend of mine (truly, it's
not me) obtained a 55 Topps Sandy Koufax in which a partial border of the
player "above" Sandy on the sheet, can be seen. My friend wondered who
that player is. I am weak in this area and am asking net54 for some help.
Were players placed in the same spot on those sheets, time after time? Does
anyone know who the player above Sandy was? Feel free to PM, and thank
you for your subject matter knowledge. Trent King

[Cliff Bowman]

Can you show a scan of the miscut 55 Koufax? If there’s enough showing of the other player we may be able to figure it out that way.

[ClementeFanOh]

Hi Cliff- thanks for replying. I don't own the card so I can't send a scan.
The only thing visible is maybe 1/16 inch of yellow border on the top part
of Sandy's card. There's no other coloring or any hint about player ID. That's
why I was hoping the sheets were uniform. Trent King

[Cliff Bowman]

That knocks it down to 18 possible cards in the 1955 Topps 2nd Series, cards that have a yellow name/position/team band. Even if there is only a sliver of the career stat line visible on the back it might be possible to pinpoint which of the 18 cards it is. I am not aware of any pics of 1955 Topps 2nd Series sheets.

[ClementeFanOh]

Cliff- thank you! I'll have my friend check the back then, that's very helpful.

Trent King

[ClementeFanOh]

Ok gang- I have embarked on a very (!) amateur sleuthing quest for the
sheet question on 55 Topps. On ebay, I found a severely miscut Warren
Spahn card #31 (first series). It was easily possible to see the stat line for
the "unknown" player on the back top of Spahn's card. There is no question
it's another Spahn...ebay seller is "sc-tarheelvintage" and ebay item
number is 174709094130. Also, my friend found a miscut 55 Topps Gil
Hodges where you can see the tip of a ballcap at the bottom of the whole
Hodges. The color and physical location of that additional cap are a match
for Gil's cap in the whole card, so it looks like it's another Hodges.

Given this result, it is reasonable to conclude that 55 Topps sheets were
single player sheets? Again, this is NOT my area of expertise by any stretch
of the imagination. In the case of my friend whose 55 Koufax miscut led to
this thread, the color visible for the partial card is the Koufax yellow. It
seems he got a Koufax and and more Koufax, on his purchase of the SGC 1
miscut

I'd enjoy reading more input. Thank you, Trent King

[Cliff Bowman]

Originally Posted by ClementeFanOh

Hi all- I'm putting out the bat signal for anyone with knowledge about
player placement in 1955 Topps baseball sheets. A friend of mine (truly, it's
not me) obtained a 55 Topps Sandy Koufax in which a partial border of the
player "above" Sandy on the sheet, can be seen. My friend wondered who
that player is. I am weak in this area and am asking net54 for some help.
Were players placed in the same spot on those sheets, time after time? Does
anyone know who the player above Sandy was? Feel free to PM, and thank
you for your subject matter knowledge. Trent King

Two and half years later Kevin and I finally got around to rebuilding the 1955 Topps 2nd Series sheets and we are positive Joey Jay is the card to the left of Sandy Koufax with the yellow showing on the Sandy Koufax miscut. Hopefully we will have a visual reconstruction of the 1955 Topps 2nd Series posted in the near future. We are now trying to rebuild the 1955 3rd Series but I’m afraid we don’t have enough miscuts to complete it, there is quite a difference in quantities of 1955 3rd Series cards versus 1955 2nd Series card scans available on eBay and elsewhere.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by Cliff Bowman

Two and half years later Kevin and I finally got around to rebuilding the 1955 Topps 2nd Series sheets and we are positive Joey Jay is the card to the left of Sandy Koufax with the yellow showing on the Sandy Koufax miscut. Hopefully we will have a visual reconstruction of the 1955 Topps 2nd Series posted in the near future. We are now trying to rebuild the 1955 3rd Series but I’m afraid we don’t have enough miscuts to complete it, there is quite a difference in quantities of 1955 3rd Series cards versus 1955 2nd Series card scans available on eBay and elsewhere.

Very cool, can't wait to see. Is there a list of 3rd series cards you guys are looking for miscut? Might help to crowdsource and see if any of us here have them

[Cliff Bowman]

Originally Posted by G1911

Very cool, can't wait to see. Is there a list of 3rd series cards you guys are looking for miscut? Might help to crowdsource and see if any of us here have them

If you have any miscuts between 161-210 that would be awesome if you can post them. The 2nd Series ended up being 91-99 and 110-160, two of the six rows were short printed and Eddie Mathews was on one of those rows. Sandy Koufax and Harmon Killebrew were on regular print rows.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by Cliff Bowman

If you have any miscuts between 161-210 that would be awesome if you can post them. The 2nd Series ended up being 91-99 and 110-160, two of the six rows were short printed and Eddie Mathews was on one of those rows. Sandy Koufax and Harmon Killebrew were on regular print rows.

Pulled out my box and found only 1 I can see another card on. 192 Jim Delsing, the front bottom right (picture orientation, not sheet orientation) I can see a strip of yellow that may not show up in 200kb sizing [the adjacent card might not be yellow as it could be slight ink misalignment]. Can see more on the back, probably not enough to identify anything.

Also, note the print splotch on front right border. Don't remember if I've brought this one to the defects thread.

[Kevvyg1026]

The 2nd series had cards 60 distinct cards, numbered 91-99 plus 110-160. Each of the two slits would have 11 rows of 10 cards each; thus there are 6 distinct rows to account for the 60 unique cards. We did not find any evidence of row switches, nor of the same player being moved to different columns within the slits.

Since there are 22 different rows across the full sheet, this would mean 4 of the rows were printed 4x each and the remaining 2 rows, printed 3x each across the full sheet.

[Cliff Bowman]

Originally Posted by G1911

Pulled out my box and found only 1 I can see another card on. 192 Jim Delsing, the front bottom right (picture orientation, not sheet orientation) I can see a strip of yellow that may not show up in 200kb sizing [the adjacent card might not be yellow as it could be slight ink misalignment]. Can see more on the back, probably not enough to identify anything.

Also, note the print splotch on front right border. Don't remember if I've brought this one to the defects thread.

I figured out what's going on with that Delsing card, it is Gil Hodges beside Delsing. Hodges has a design flaw where his picture extends further than it should. Thanks for posting it.