Show...me...your print variations!

[4reals]

Cliff, since you brought up the roller streaks I have a question. I always considered these to be in the no big deal category because when I have time to sift through vintage commons they are abundant but since you have 15 of them it sounds like you collect them to some extent.

My question is, and I ask this of anyone willing to respond, what are the least interesting or least desirable print variations/anomalies to chase or add to your collection and which are the most desirable?

Fisheyes/bullseyes?
Roller marks/streaks?
Random border dots?
Smeared ink?
Solution spills?
Ink transfer?
Ghosting?
Offset color creating a border void?
Offset color changing the color of an object?
Missing ink?
Border breaks?

These are not the only options, feel free to add something I may have neglected.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Cliff Bowman]

Originally Posted by 4reals

Cliff, since you brought up the roller streaks I have a question. I always considered these to be in the no big deal category because when I have time to sift through vintage commons they are abundant but since you have 15 of them it sounds like you collect them to some extent.

My question is, and I ask this of anyone willing to respond, what are the least interesting or least desirable print variations/anomalies to chase or add to your collection and which are the most desirable?

Fisheyes/bullseyes?
Roller marks/streaks?
Random border dots?
Smeared ink?
Solution spills?
Ink transfer?
Ghosting?
Offset color creating a border void?
Offset color changing the color of an object?
Missing ink?
Border breaks?

These are not the only options, feel free to add something I may have neglected.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My personal favorites are too much ink/ink explosions and partially missing borders/partially missing black ink which are from the final step of the printing process of a card.

[Kevvyg1026]

Originally Posted by Cliff Bowman

My personal favorites are too much ink/ink explosions and partially missing borders/partially missing black ink which are from the final step of the printing process of a card.

Those three cards are consecutive in the Bob Johnson row of the series 5 issue. Nice find!!

[ALR-bishop]

The 67s Cliff posted are tough

[G1911]

Thank you gentlemen, I got a few more to go chase!

Al - what's the difference between the 2nd and 3rd 1973 Dick Williams cards? My eyes must be failing me on spotting this one.

[butchie_t]

Originally Posted by G1911

Thank you gentlemen, I got a few more to go chase!

Al - what's the difference between the 2nd and 3rd 1973 Dick Williams cards? My eyes must be failing me on spotting this one.

Vern's ear is missing on one and not the other.

So for all the 73 variations you have, do you have a list of them? I am chasing down all the print breaks and am not sure I have found/documented all of them yet.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by butchie_t

Vern's ear is missing on one and not the other.

So for all the 73 variations you have, do you have a list of them? I am chasing down all the print breaks and am not sure I have found/documented all of them yet.

Ah, thank you!

I keep a Numbers (Apple's Excel) spreadsheet with a tab for every year from 1952-1973 (and a separate sheet for Bowman's, football cards, and tobacco sets I collect) with the complete checklist, notating which ones I have and don't have, the condition of my copy, and a line entry for every variation and card I consider to be a RPD (all our definitions are slightly different). The variations I have listed are gathered from the Standard Catalog, what I have noticed, and what people have shared with me here and elsewhere. Some years are pretty detailed and probably 'close to somewhat complete' (like 1956) and others are not very good. Some years I've gotten lazy and not yet included a separate line for every stock variation (Like 68/69/70), but I think most of you guys don't do cream vs. white stock. My 73 list is probably one of the worst as I've only recently included it in my run and I certainly have significantly less than some of you guys.


I don't think I can take an export of my sheet to an Excel file format and attach here on the board, but anyone interested, DM me your email and what year(s) you collect. It's an inventory tracker/personal annotation list and also a checklist so my Notes and Grade columns and color coding are garbage to anyone else, but maybe some of the lists can help.

[ALR-bishop]

Originally Posted by butchie_t

Vern's ear is missing on one and not the other.

So for all the 73 variations you have, do you have a list of them? I am chasing down all the print breaks and am not sure I have found/documented all of them yet.

Bob Lemke initially started including border breaks in the Standard Catalog 73 checklist. And PSA picked those up. But Bob stopped listing them when he realized how many there were, not only in 73 but in many sets. It was about that time he narrowed his definition of a variation he would include in the Catalog to cards intentionally changed by the manufacturer. But he found that was it was often hard to determine if a card met that definition as well.

Butch--Cliff helped me put together my list of border break cards in the 73 set. It is a very long one. If he does not have his handy I can put together a list for you of what I have

[Deertick]

Only two of my 73's that aren't just fisheyes