Let's see your National Pickups

[Volod]

Originally Posted by Leon

Love these things. I am lazy so I don't even have to flip them over to see the backs, as they are printed on the fronts, or the fronts on the backs . They are blank backed otherwise...

Leon: Do you have any idea how those cards could have been printed in error twice? Since the backs required two separate printings - one for the black lettering and one for the red, which can be seen by the spacing variation of the large red "Baseball" line, how or why did some press operator double down on the mistake? Or, maybe the two separate print applications actually followed each other in an automatic process? Interesting to speculate about.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Volod

Leon: Do you have any idea how those cards could have been printed in error twice? Since the backs required two separate printings - one for the black lettering and one for the red, which can be seen by the spacing variation of the large red "Baseball" line, how or why did some press operator double down on the mistake? Or, maybe the two separate print applications actually followed each other in an automatic process? Interesting to speculate about.

I don't know. Maybe the press operator was drunk?

[toppcat]

Making me dizzy there Leon!

Actually, I think a lot of the weird proofs and double printed cards in the hobby result from the tops and bottoms of press runs and pallet shipments, especially just after World War 2 through the 1980's. A couple of sheets on the top and bottom of a stack fed into the press, just to make sure the ink is flowing and there is no damage to the printed sheets is certainly one explanation for these I think. If you stack 'em upside down it lets the people unloading know where the good stuff begins and ends in a stack.

Similarly rejected sheets from the beginning and end of a print run would be used at the top and bottom of a stack of printed sheets on a pallet. This let the waste sheets take the nicks and dings from banding and shipping at the printer's and then they would be discarded at the final point of insertion (say the Bowman plant in Philly) once the good ones are unloaded and in the hopper for cutting. Dumpster diving and the odd cruddy reject being cut and packaged would account for quite a few of these entering the hobby.

I also assume, especially with Topps, that a few sheets were run off of each series for inspection by them and then, allowing for a marked up proof sheet being returned to the printers, these sheets were likely discarded or even kept by the executives for their kids. This practice would have accelerated after 1965 when Topps had cards printed in Philly, inspected by the brass in Brooklyn and then cut and inserted into packs in Duryea.