1956 Topps #101-180 rare white backs w/ unusual premium

[Harliduck]

So...question...after seeing this post and having no clue about the series 101-180 I went and looked at my set to see if I had any. In the first few pages I have several "white" backs, which are clearly white and pronounced. In the 101-180, I have three that stand out. They are quite duller than the first series white backs, but look more dirty white and more subdued. They certainly stand out next to the gray backs. Are these indeed white backs from the 101-180 series?

Card #134 in this pic -



Card #139 in this pic -



Card #172 in this one -




Again...the 3 cards seem to be in the middle...and definitely stand out. Sorry for the poor pics...

[G1911]

Originally Posted by Harliduck

So...question...after seeing this post and having no clue about the series 110-180 I went and looked at my set to see if I had any. In the first few pages I have several "white" backs, which are clearly white and pronounced. In the 110-180, I have three that stand out. They are quite duller than the first series white backs, but look more dirty white and more subdued. They certainly stand out next to the gray backs. Are these indeed white backs from the 110-180 series?

Card #134 in this pic -



Card #139 in this pic -



Card #172 in this one -




Again...the 3 cards seem to be in the middle...and definitely stand out. Sorry for the poor pics...

Yes, those are the white backs.

Gray backs are tougher than white in series 1, 1-100, but not too bad.

White backs are tougher in series 2, 101-180. Series 2 white backs are tougher than series 1 gray backs. On the whole, they aren't that tough and often carry no premium or a small one outside of select cards that have gained traction over the last decade or so.

[Harliduck]

Originally Posted by G1911

Yes, those are the white backs.

Gray backs are tougher than white in series 1, 1-100, but not too bad.

White backs are tougher in series 2, 101-180. Series 2 white backs are tougher than series 1 gray backs. On the whole, they aren't that tough and often carry no premium or a small one outside of select cards that have gained traction over the last decade or so.

Thanks...appreciate the clarity. Just like to know what I have...

[G1911]

Originally Posted by Harliduck

Thanks...appreciate the clarity. Just like to know what I have...

At first, I wanted to know what I had too. And then, that knowledge made me go down the master set road. It's a dangerous path of inquiry!

One of my favorite card sets of any time and type, I love the design and background images. Topps really hit it out of the park 1952-1956

[Collectorsince62]

This thread is one of the reasons this forum is so enjoyable. Who knew a few of the '56 white backs from the 2nd series were so tough in high grade? Of course I had to check my '56 set. It's an EX-MT set but I only have five of the series 2 white backs . . . and one of them is Frank Thomas. I just added a post-it note to the sheet in which Mr. Thomas lives for future reference. Thanks fellow collectors.

[G1911]

I took a run at the dataset to see what it suggests.

The card with the lowest population is Bob Roselli at 39. The most for a common (obviously, people grade HOFers more and we lose the reasonably fair comparison if we look at Mickey Mantle vs. a guy like Roselli) is Ray Narleski at 89. Just over double. There's a few in the low 40's, a lot in the 50's, 60's and 70's. There is natural fluctuation over commons known to have the same print run in all sets, and this is well within what I postulated above; some are DP's on the sheet because it's an 80 card series on a 110 half sheet. The same effect can be seen on the gray backs (Roselli 486, Narleski 672 for example; in higher populations the % disparity becomes smaller and smaller), because it's sheet would be the same as series 3 and 4 shown above. The cards with less white backs also have less gray backs in the pop report; we can figure out which ones were likely the cards on the DP'd rows used to fill out the sheet even without having one. There are not actual SP's, just some DP's as we would expect and are also present on the gray backs.

This recent market notion, that there are some cards much tougher than others and deserving of huge premiums, is not supported by the evidence. It is contradictory to the dataset and what common sense and deductive logic would tell us about the sheet and printing. If people want to pay 20x for standard print run row cards would normally go for in Topps sets, my DM's and PayPal are open.