Topps 1985 Minis

[ALR-bishop]

Ebay. Can not remember if it was a Canadian or New York seller. It could be it was a one run color proof sheet. I also have one or two cards with only red and green swirls on the back. I will post one if I get a chance today

[4reals]

Yeah, it might be...I look forward the scan, thanks!

[ALR-bishop]

[4reals]

Thank you for sharing. Interesting, very interesting.

[Zach Wheat]

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

Ebay. Can not remember if it was a Canadian or New York seller. It could be it was a one run color proof sheet. I also have one or two cards with only red and green swirls on the back. I will post one if I get a chance today

One of the sellers promoting 1985 mini's indicates that he has correspondence from Topps which, in part confirms that more than 130 sets were issued. By his accounting Topps hired O-Pee-Chee to make the mini-test set. OPC then sold among other things, 210 sheets to a scrapper, which then sold 110 of the 132-card "sets" to a Long Island dealer. The dealer then cut the sheets in to cards.

By the dealers account, the sheets may have included 3 color progressive proofs, later shown to exist - which presumably may be where your red backs came from, Al. Of course this is just conjecture, but it certainly sounds plausible.

He also indicates that the cards were printed on normal OPC "white" stock or regular Topps cardboard stock - possibly explaining the 2 types of blank backs (tan & gray cardboard). Other accounts in a previous thread indicate some of the sheets were thrown away and retrieved from dumpsters due to smeared ink, etc.

[ALR-bishop]

Great info Zach. I guess you and I will never be 100 percent sure of all the facts, but everything you have passed on is consistent with my experience in collecting them

[NotoriousBOB]

I know I have at least one Julio Franco 1985 Topps mini. Hmmm...now I am going to have to check out the back to see what I have. Thanks for the info.