1982 Topps Blackless

[ALR-bishop]

Blacklessing was a term invented by a long time seller of Blackless cards on eBay. He was the author of the description of the Fisk card in the 2nd link above. To me it is a term to describe transition cards where the black ink was running low or out. Fred, his name, would say if traces of the black or gray appears, it is not a "true" Blackless card, but a Blacklessing card. I guess it is up to each individual collector whether to make such distinctions in collecting such cards

[bswhiten]

https://huntauctions.com/phone/image...173&lot_num=64

Wow. Maybe blackless-ing cards are more sought after than I thought.

[Republicaninmass]

Wow!

[bswhiten]

Anyone know which Catalog this list came from? This was included with the set when originally sold. And why would 342 George Foster ($275) and 780 Pete Rose ($375) be the most expensive by far as listed in this catalog? Odd to me...

[steve B]

I don't recognize that one, but there were a couple one offs or briefly produced that had imaginative pricing.

If it was close to 82, Pete Rose was a big deal, and a high price on a card considered rare wouldn't be unusual.

The Foster originally had a "signature" it shouldn't have and was later corrected. That was also a bit of a big deal for a while. Not quite that big of a deal, but a fairly expensive card for 1982-3. Now? I don't even recall which one they said was harder to find.

[bswhiten]

Thanks for the info Steve. Any idea when hobby publications first wrote about the printing error? I heard that Baseball Card Magazine had an article about the no black ink variation in 82/83?

Were some of these other print defects common in the set? I have two Babcock's that have red dots/smearing on them. Curious if others are the same or different. The Corbett is the only one I have in the set that doesn’t complete the brown line on the border.

[steve B]

Originally Posted by bswhiten

Thanks for the info Steve. Any idea when hobby publications first wrote about the printing error? I heard that Baseball Card Magazine had an article about the no black ink variation in 82/83?

Were some of these other print defects common in the set? I have two Babcock's that have red dots/smearing on them. Curious if others are the same or different. The Corbett is the only one I have in the set that doesn’t complete the brown line on the border.

I haven't really looked at loads of 82s. I bought all three sets that year instead of trying to make them up myself.

But, as a close second, I have looked at loads of 1981 Topps. I bought something like 20,000 of them at a store closing auction.
Years later I went through them looking for differences. *
Some were really prone to ink spatter, and way more than half had some sort of consistent difference, usually trivial spots etc that had been fixed.
I doubt Topps did things much differently in 82.
I made a list, I still need to find it and get it typed up so it's more understandable.


*I was, and am still considering doing a catalog that lists all that stuff, possibly with images if digital, or loose-leaf if it's printed, so people can just get the part of the catalog they really want. Since I had so many, 81T was going to be the test for the format etc.