Finally found an e98 printing variation - Black and White e98s.....

[tbob]

I agree with Tim, I hope they are not faded but I'm not sold on their being black and whites. I also passed on the cards because I didn't think they were black and whites.
Brian- I think the Cobb you are referring to was a black and white E93. Nice cards and interesting, congrats on the pickups.
I have a black and white M116 Mitchell which is a unique card so I know anomalies do exist. There is also a gray background E94 (yours?) in the hobby and of course the one of a kind orange background E94s which exist with an orange background for each player but only one known to exist for each player. I have 5 of those E94s and have never found out he reason for the orange backs. There was a theory that one sheet of E94s were printed by mistake with the orange ink used for E98s but that, in my mind, has been dismissed because even though most of the orange backgrounds came from a stash once owned by Brian Daniels in California, one of the cards came from Lionel Carter's collection and was owned by him for many years.