1955-1970 Topps Virtual Series Sheets

[ncal88]

Originally Posted by toppcat

There's all sorts of weirdness in 1958, capped by the four high numbers being (partially) pulled to allow for the Triple Printing of the Mantle and Musial AS cards. I've sometimes wondered if they had some sort of progressive printing in '58, where some cards from the current series would be subbed out for others from the next as printing went on through each series. I'm not talking about the checklist and series lagging stuff they pulled in the sixties but true sub-outs and new press runs.

And I'm not sure if this helps or not but Sam Rosen, who was Woody Gelman's stepfather and surely had the SP/DP info to pass to him, had this unique pricing breakdown in his July 1958 sales list:

Thank you for replying! I was actually reading through your blog before I posted. I appreciate all the info you provided there.

So far, here are some of the pairings found in series 1. Interestingly, Billy Klaus is #89 and Clemente is #52 so they were printed together. Clemente is also next to Eddie Kasko #8.

Lee Walls #66 is next to George Kell #40 based on the stats on the back

Al Kaline #70 is next to Billy hunter #98.

[Cliff Bowman]

Here are the known partial sheets.

[ncal88]

Originally Posted by Cliff Bowman

Here are the known partial sheets.

Oh wow! Thank you so much for this. I had been looking for it. I notice the first one has the yellow variations.

[ncal88]

Originally Posted by Cliff Bowman

Here are the known partial sheets.

I had found this miscut earlier of Duke Snider which appears to show a red background below but your images have him above a yellow and a green.

Also, do you think introduction of the 33 yellow variations reduced the print run of the 33 base versions counterparts?

[Cliff Bowman]

Originally Posted by ncal88

I had found this miscut earlier of Duke Snider which appears to show a red background below but your images have him above a yellow and a green.

Also, do you think introduction of the 33 yellow variations reduced the print run of the 33 base versions counterparts?

Kevin and I have found so many row changes on 1958 1st Series cards that there is no way they made only two 132 card slits, we suspect they made four or maybe even six different 132 card slits. We reconstructed the three missing rows of 33 cards but there hasn’t been a virtual sheet made of them yet.

[Kevvyg1026]

Yes, Snider is above Zimmer in one partial, then above Burdette in another, and the miscut you are referring to also places him above Porter.

There is also a miscut Landis (same row as Snider) which is above Virgil (same row as Porter). This is why Cliff mentioned that the slit patterns of series 1 are difficult to reconstruct, and make it appear as if there were multiple (different) sheets.

Similar oddities are present for the Dodger team card in this series, as well. And series 5, which only has five different rows, also displays multiple row switches.

[deweyinthehall]

Cliff and Kevvy have done the work on this one...

[toppcat]

Originally Posted by Cliff Bowman

Kevin and I have found so many row changes on 1958 1st Series cards that there is no way they made only two 132 card slits, we suspect they made four or maybe even six different 132 card slits. We reconstructed the three missing rows of 33 cards but there hasn’t been a virtual sheet made of them yet.

I wonder now if Topps reconfigured stuff to put in more LA/SF players in the packs as each series spread west. They seem to have been able to move rows around pretty easily, just not sure if any of the "extra" arrays you mention would reflect this possibility. I think they may have done something a little similar in 1954 and 1955 but more to make it seems like there were more cards than there actually were than whatever occurred in '58.

[ncal88]

Originally Posted by deweyinthehall

Cliff and Kevvy have done the work on this one...

Thank you so much for these!

I love seeing the sheets together.

Can you send me the progress on the series 1 slits that you’re working on?

[Kevvyg1026]

We believe the missing 33 cards (i.e., 3 rows) are oriented (L to R, from Col 1 to Col 11) as follows:

Bob Hazle Frank Bolling Wally Burnette Roger Maris Del Rice Bill Fischer Ted Lepcio Dave Hillman Ron Jackson Bobby Adams Joe Lonnett


Billy Gardner Jerry Lynch Ted Kazanski Valmy Thomas Hal Naragon Billy O'Dell Bob Thurman Norm Siebern Roy Face Tex Clevenger Chuck Tanner


Bob Martyn Ronnie Kline Joe DeMaestri Hank Bauer Dick Gernert Joe Nuxhall Bud Byerly Herb Plews Johnny Kucks Joe Durham Felix Mantilla

[Kevvyg1026]

Here are the 5 strips from series 6. We have not yet been able to determine the slit patterns for the series 6 printings since there are a number of row changes that appear to occur.

The strips shown are the "newer" ones. The original strips must have contained four missing cards, identified as SPs in guides. These were cards 443 (Harrell), 446 (Hardy), Ward (450), and 462 (Geiger).

These four cards were removed (apparently) during later printings and extra Mantle AS (487) and Musial AS (476) cards were substituted.

I suspect that Harrell and Geiger were removed and two additional Musial AS cards substituted. I also suspect that Hardy and Ward were removed and extra Mantle AS cards substituted.

To support this conjecture, there is a Geiger miscut with an edge marking in the same location as a mark on a Musial miscut (and a Jensen miscut), while there is a miscut Ward with Hardy on his left.

1958_series_6_strips.jpg

[ncal88]

I found this miscut of Preston Ward. Im not sure if it lines up with Hardy or Harrell but Im leaning towards Hardy.

[Cliff Bowman]

Originally Posted by Kevvyg1026

I suspect that Harrell and Geiger were removed and two additional Musial AS cards substituted. I also suspect that Hardy and Ward were removed and extra Mantle AS cards substituted.

I think we can confirm the first printing goes Musial AS-Harrell-Geiger and Mantle AS-Hardy-Ward. Here's a miscut Geiger with Ward under it.

[Kevvyg1026]

The back of the Ward mc shows part of the stat box of the adjacent card. There is no gap on that mc, so the card must be Hardy. Harrell shows a gap between BA & PO, whereas Hardy's doesn't.

1958_450_left.jpg

[deweyinthehall]

Slight correction to this faux sheet posted earlier - Red Heavy Artillery is now correctly oriented...

[deweyinthehall]

Now with Roznovsky and Podres correctly placed...

[Cliff Bowman]

Originally Posted by deweyinthehall

Now with Roznovsky and Podres correctly placed...

Beautiful! I didn't think we'd ever see that one.

[Kevvyg1026]

Thank you Dewey & Cliff. Seeing these re-created sheets based on the evidence provided by miscuts and the logic both of you provide is truly amazing.

When I was a young collector, oh so many years ago, I thought miscuts were a waste of my nickels and dimes. Now, I view them as informative and beautiful.

[bb66]

Those look great! Thanks again to Cliff, Kevin, and Dewey.Great info.Super info for collectors to have.

[stevepoland]

Anyone have 1960 Series 2 uncut sheet with Yaz?

[Kevvyg1026]

I know the slits exist since I have a spreadsheet of the pattern. However, all I could find in my records is this partial.

384_490470f592abf87a4ae5cc0dcc8fd868.jpg

[Kevvyg1026]

After reviewing my records more thoroughly, I have not worked on creating a virtual sheet for either series 2 or series 3 from 1960. However, here is a miscut of the Yaz RC.


1960_148.jpg

[deweyinthehall]

Based upon the detective work of Cliff and Kevvy, here is the likely arrangement of the full 264-card 2nd series sheet from 1960:

[Cliff Bowman]

Originally Posted by deweyinthehall

Based upon the detective work of Cliff and Kevvy, here is the likely arrangement of the full 264-card 2nd series sheet from 1960:

They look great as always! Here's a bigger scan of the first slit.

[Cliff Bowman]

Here's a bigger scan of the second slit.

[toppcat]

Those black print splotches that plague Yaz and some other rookies must come from the black name band on the card above the two atop him but very much from the one below his (rotate 90 degrees for orientation)!

[Cliff Bowman]

Originally Posted by stevepoland

Anyone have 1960 Series 2 uncut sheet with Yaz?

It didn't even enter my mind to do a 1960 Series slit until you posted this, 1960 is definitely not among my favorites and I didn't know there were any unknown 1960 Series slits. I will have nightmares about those 32 Rookie Star cards . Kevin and I are currently doing the 1960 3rd Series layout and it's trickier than I thought it would be.

[stevepoland]

Thanks! Amazing work!

[Kevvyg1026]

I thought the rookie star cards in series 2 made that series hard to reconstruct (and they did), but the manager cards and specialty cards in series 3 might be worse. Cards adjacent to those have to extremely miscut in order to obtain any useful information. Only about 20 cards to go. LoL

[deweyinthehall]

A reconstruction of what a full sheet from the 2nd series of 1955 Topps may have looked like - no idea if I have the gutter placed correctly - should the slits be joined at the short ends?

[Cliff Bowman]

Originally Posted by deweyinthehall

A reconstruction of what a full sheet from the 2nd series of 1955 Topps may have looked like - no idea if I have the gutter placed correctly - should the slits be joined at the short ends?

Ugh, I messed up, I gave dewey the order of the columns backwards, they need to go the other way. Putting these horizontal card sets sideways gets confusing. This one is on me.

[deweyinthehall]

Updated....

[Cliff Bowman]

Originally Posted by deweyinthehall

Updated....

You nailed it! Thank you for correcting my screw up. Here is a bigger scan of the first slit.

[Cliff Bowman]

Here is a bigger scan of the second slit.