1956 topps white backs

[Archive]

Posted By: dennis

#1-180 can have grey backs or white backs. looking at my '56 topps between 1-100 i have 75% white backs. but from #100-180 i only have 3 white backs. are the white backs more common than grey in #'s under 100? are the white backs scarce between #100-180? in general are the grey backs more common on all the #'s? would the be a premium paid for white backs in general or are only over #100?

[Archive]

Posted By: MikeU

Cards 1-180 can have both a gray or white back.

Cards 1-100 are scarcer with a gray back and can carry a slight premium.

Cards 101-180 are scarcer with the white back and carry a larger premium.

Because of the Heritage release last year having only the white backs as premiums, there is a false sense that all gray back are less scare for many people.

[Archive]

Posted By: dennis

thought i'd bump this one up as we seem to have touched on this subject here,mikeu gave an anawer to the question.
my only white backs in the 2nd series are the brooklyn team card,wally post and jimmy piersall. take a look at your 2nd series and let me know how many you have.

[Archive]

Posted By: Paul S

I'm unclear which numbers technically comprise the 2nd series; is it 101-180? If so, out of about 30 cards I have from that number run, only two are white.

*edited to add: the cards are #101 Campanella and #143 Piersall.

[Archive]

Posted By: dennis

series 1 #1-100
2 #101-180
3 #181-260
4 #261-340
paul,i think that any card with a white back after #100 is very tough to find...maybe none exist after #180?

[Archive]

Posted By: Paul S

Dennis, you are right about that (any white back after 100.)
BTW -- does anybody have a scan of a checklist card they'd like to share?

[Archive]

Posted By: judson hamlin

My white backs 100-180 are: 108 Pepper, 124 Kaiser, 141 Frazier, 143 Piersall, 170 Virdon and 173 Podres. That compares to 30 graybacks from 1 to 99.

[Archive]

Posted By: dennis

interesting,we all have a piersall!

[Archive]

Posted By: William

I have nothing to confirm this one way or another, but I have heard over the years that #1 - #100 white & gray backs are about equally distributed and #101- #180, about 90% are gray backs and 10% white backs.

I separate #101 - #180 white backs at shows. I don't get much of a premium for them, unless they are EX/MT or better. Collectors who are looking for them appreciate they don't have to dig through all of my 1956's to find them. Collector's who isn't working on the master set don't give a crap about them.

I don't find alot of #101 - #180 white backs in high grade. I find they typically have more surface indentions, scratches, etc that the #101- #180 gray backs.

I have some in stock for anyone with #'s they are looking for.

[Archive]

Posted By: Paul S

Dennis said: interesting, we all have a piersall!

Are there gray-back Piersalls? Who's got one, or is that too far fetched?

[Archive]

Posted By: jackgoodman

First, I have a gray backed Piersall.

The following are white backs: 112 Fondy, 117 Trucks, 150 Snider, 171 Wilson.

Hope that helps.

[Archive]

Posted By: dennis

back when harry carray and jimmy piersall were teamed up doing the white sox,during a disagreement between the two, harry said " aw you're crazy" to which jimmy responded "i got the papers to prove it."

[Archive]

Posted By: Dan

I have a full set of 1956 Topps plus a number of cards with both back versions. I have 50 of the Gray back (1 - 100) and 29 White Backs (101 - 180). Included in my white backs are: 109 - Enos Slaughter, 110 - Yogi Berra, 130 - Willie Mays, 145 - Gil Hodges, 150 - Duke Snider, and 165 - Red Schoendienst.

[Archive]

Posted By: rob

redsox team
snider
mays
demaestri
torgeson

[Archive]

Posted By: Doug Goodman

Hello - Just like the Doug who posted a couple of days ago, I found this forum thru the pre-war site, but I also am working on pre-1969 Topps sets.

I have duplicates of 1956 white backs in probably vg/ex condition #149, 155, 156, 175. I need 40 white backs numbered 100 thru 180, if anybody has any to trade or sell, I would be interested.

Happy collecting - Doug

[cubman1941]

Originally Posted by Archive

Posted By: William

I have nothing to confirm this one way or another, but I have heard over the years that #1 - #100 white & gray backs are about equally distributed and #101- #180, about 90% are gray backs and 10% white backs.

I separate #101 - #180 white backs at shows. I don't get much of a premium for them, unless they are EX/MT or better. Collectors who are looking for them appreciate they don't have to dig through all of my 1956's to find them. Collector's who isn't working on the master set don't give a crap about them.

I don't find alot of #101 - #180 white backs in high grade. I find they typically have more surface indentions, scratches, etc that the #101- #180 gray backs.

I have some in stock for anyone with #'s they are looking for.

I have been looking for a 1956 11 (Cubs) dated gray back for years. It has just been suggested to me by another member of our forum that only the 1956 11 left and centered have both white and gray backs; that the 1956 11 dated was only printed in white back. I have sent a note to PSA asking them for help but no answer yet. I would go to SCD but since Bob left I haven't had much success with them. Can you shed any light on this? Thanks.

[donniebaseball]

I think that Topps used two different printers/distributors to get the 1st and 2nd series out in order to expedite the process. One printer used a white back and the other used a gray back. As the set was released they phased out the 2nd distributor and then the backs became more uniform.

The issue that Topps was trying to avoid was a delay in their distribution leaving too much inventory around when football season rolls around in the fall. That is the classic story when Topps had too many extra cases of the 1952 set which eventually had to be disposed of in the Atlantic Ocean. I think we would have all pitched in by taking a case or two from Sy to help him make room in the factory, lol.

[cubman1941]

Originally Posted by donniebaseball

I think that Topps used two different printers/distributors to get the 1st and 2nd series out in order to expedite the process. One printer used a white back and the other used a gray back. As the set was released they phased out the 2nd distributor and then the backs became more uniform.

The issue that Topps was trying to avoid was a delay in their distribution leaving too much inventory around when football season rolls around in the fall. That is the classic story when Topps had too many extra cases of the 1952 set which eventually had to be disposed of in the Atlantic Ocean. I think we would have all pitched in by taking a case or two from Sy to help him make room in the factory, lol.

Thanks for the info. I just heard from George Vrechek whom I consider one of the best, that indeed there was not gray back for any of the 1956 dated cards. Your explanation explains the reason and I appreciate that. I can now cross that one off my list. Thanks again.
Jim

[cubman1941]

Originally Posted by donniebaseball

I think that Topps used two different printers/distributors to get the 1st and 2nd series out in order to expedite the process. One printer used a white back and the other used a gray back. As the set was released they phased out the 2nd distributor and then the backs became more uniform.

The issue that Topps was trying to avoid was a delay in their distribution leaving too much inventory around when football season rolls around in the fall. That is the classic story when Topps had too many extra cases of the 1952 set which eventually had to be disposed of in the Atlantic Ocean. I think we would have all pitched in by taking a case or two from Sy to help him make room in the factory, lol.

Now that you have helped solve one question, can you shed light on another I have. Did the same thing hold true for the 1959's? The reason I am asking is the SCD book say 199-289 can be white or gray but does not say anything about the others except for the text box. I am wondering if Topps did the same with other series for 1959 because, and I am only using my Cub cards,
I have 15-62 white back, 113-197 gray back 214-274 white and gray, 301-367 gray, 388-479 white, 447-502 gray and 512-up white. thanks.
Jim

[cubman1941]

I just got a reply from PSA. Here is what they say. The first response was "Yes, cards 1-180 have both gray and white". So I asked them if they had, in fact, graded a gray back 11 dated 1955.

Hello Jim

I can confirm that we do have specs for a gray back 1956 Topps 11 Cubs Team with date, however, we have not actually graded or authenticated these items previously.

[hcv123]

I would trust PSA less about identification and existence questions then I do to objectively grade cards. What does them having "specs" mean? They haven't graded one?!

[cubman1941]

I agree. The reason I asked the question is to see if they had actually graded a 1956 11 dated 1955 gray back. Their "specs" are just what is in SCD. So, as pointed out by our great members, a gray back 1956 11 dated 1955 does not exist, unless someone has had one graded by some other company.

[droid714]

Here's a link to PSA's population report for the 1956 Topps baseball cards. The white backs outnumber the gray backs from 1-100 by a better than two-to-one margin. From 101-180, the white backs appear to be quite scarce compared to the gray backs.

Only one dated team card shows a gray back. The Cleveland Indians show a single example, graded a 4.

https://www.psacard.com/pop/baseball...56/topps/49737

[swarmee]

Here's a copy in a Beckett slab.

1956 Topps - [Base] #85.3 - Cleveland Indians Team (White Back, Team Name and Year) [BVG 6.5 EX‑MT+]
Courtesy of COMC.com

COMC's had at least 6 of them over the years. So while rarer, the population report of graded cards may not be the best judge. Not everyone who collects the 1956 set cares that much about the white/gray stock variations.

[G1911]

That’s a white back, not the card he was talking about.

The 1955 date with a gray back does not exist, PSA just misgraded one. There are 5 variations per team, not 6. Grey back, name at left is the toughest of the 5.

[droid714]

Not sure why you posted an image of a dated Indians card with a white back. As far as I was aware of, until yesterday, white backs were the only ones in existence.

While perusing the PSA website yesterday, I discovered the possibility of a single example with a gray back. If it does indeed exist, in may well be the only example in existence.

If a gray back example does exist, it was probably cut from a test sheet that was run with gray back stock, which would also suggest that at least one example of gray back, dated team cards exist for all five teams that had cards printed in the first series run of cards #1 through #100.

I would appreciate any information on the existence of dated team cards with gray backs, since I have been unable to locate any information about them other than the indication of the one Indians team card on the PSA website.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by droid714

Not sure why you posted an image of a dated Indians card with a white back. As far as I was aware of, until yesterday, white backs were the only ones in existence.

While perusing the PSA website yesterday, I discovered the possibility of a single example with a gray back. If it does indeed exist, in may well be the only example in existence.

If a gray back example does exist, it was probably cut from a test sheet that was run with gray back stock, which would also suggest that at least one example of gray back, dated team cards exist for all five teams that had cards printed in the first series run of cards #1 through #100.

I would appreciate any information on the existence of dated team cards with gray backs, since I have been unable to locate any information about them other than the indication of the one Indians team card on the PSA website.

Grey backs with a 1955 date don’t exist, or at least nobody has ever produced any reasonable documentary evidence of one. Only 5 variations per card, not 6. PSA just screws up sometimes

[droid714]

Originally Posted by G1911

Grey backs with a 1955 date don’t exist, or at least nobody has ever produced any reasonable documentary evidence of one. Only 5 variations per card, not 6. PSA just screws up sometimes

Wow, that's a pretty major screw up!

[swarmee]

Sorry, I originally posted about the back probably being a mechanical error, then searched the wrong item, which I chose to post.

PSA makes a ton of mechanical errors, so you'd have to see a scan of that specific card in the holder to confirm it's a gray back.

[bradmar48]

I checked my set and I have one card from #101-#180 with a white back.
#180 Robin Roberts PSA 7

[cubman1941]

Originally Posted by cubman1941

Thanks for the info. I just heard from George Vrechek whom I consider one of the best, that indeed there was not gray back for any of the 1956 dated cards. Your explanation explains the reason and I appreciate that. I can now cross that one off my list. Thanks again.
Jim

I repeat this from an earlier post of mine (2005 I think). I am a Cub guy and have all the 1956 Cubs with white and gray backs. I had spent years looking for Cubs dated gray back and asked the question on Net54.