A 1952 Topps ebay fake to avoid

[toppcat]

Originally Posted by tombocombo

of the three what is rarest
all black
partial black
broken line
any thoughts on printing process?

Some type of issue with the black color masking I would think. It was wrong, almost wrong and then fixed. Agree with Al-any kind of rare, expensive or infamous card should be purchased from a dealer or individual you trust. Buying a raw card off eBay like the Campos linked above is just asking for trouble IMO.

[flkersn]

If the broken border is a symptom of the same problem as the partial black star (ink running out or a masking problem) then I would think the broken border is rarer. I have seen partial black stars with full borders, but all the broken borders I have seen have partial black stars, suggesting it is "downstream" of the partial black star process. I would be interested if anyone has seen a broken border WITHOUT a partial black star.

[ALR-bishop]

While I collect variations and what I find to be interesting print defects, unlike several here I know very little about the printing process.

My Campos black star, partial black star and missing border are in post 3 in this thread. Here is the back of the missing border card I have: