1956 or 1957 Topps? Which would you choose?

[RTK]

'57, great cards. Almost ahead of their time with great photography.

[GregC]

I'd vote 56. Eaxh card in that set looks like a miniature work of art. The vibrant colors, portrait/action image combo, a stunning Mantle/Koufax/Clemente/Aaron/Mays...

[Griffins]

Another vote for '56. The photography in '57 is muddy.

[Exhibitman]

Take the ones you like best.

Me, I prefer the scope of the 1957 set. You lose Rizzuto and Jackie but you get the other two Robinsons and over 100 more cards.

[Mark70Z]

Love the 1957 set!

[jhowie]

1956 is a much nicer looking set. I love the simple design of the '57 set, but the pictures are terrible..... grainy, dark lighting, random poses in empty parks

[ALR-bishop]

That was another Berger innovation, Anthony. As a photographer yourself you should appreciate it

[RTK]

Originally Posted by jhowie

1956 is a much nicer looking set. I love the simple design of the '57 set, but the pictures are terrible..... grainy, dark lighting, random poses in empty parks

Printing technology aside, the compostion of the photos is pretty good. I especially like what's in the background, snippets of the old stadiums. They capture a moment in time of a long gone era.

[jchcollins]

Originally Posted by jhowie

1956 is a much nicer looking set. I love the simple design of the '57 set, but the pictures are terrible..... grainy, dark lighting, random poses in empty parks

Overall I would say pick the set that you like the most, but have to agree with this comment. The pictures on a good deal of the '57 cards aren't great, and even for those that are - the print defect problem in this set as a whole (perhaps because of the real photography?) is awful in comparison to a lot of other sets from the 1950's. When collecting '57s anymore, I go for the pictures being registered and as clean as possible first without that "snow" over even things like centering. This is another set where there is a wide variety in quality between some cards that get the same technical grade because of the snow problem.