311 Mantle - which would you rather have?

[G1911]

The Red line above "Major and minor league batting records..." is printed shorter on the top example.

[raulus]

Originally Posted by G1911

The Red line above "Major and minor league batting records..." is printed shorter on the top example.

I think the big red box at the top of the back is what is throwing me off.

And I think you're right that the red box is shorter on one version than on the other as well.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by raulus

I think the big red box at the top of the back is what is throwing me off.

And I think you're right that the red box is shorter on one version than on the other as well.

There's a lot of little differences like this on the 2 types that never get talked about or listed publicly when discussing them. I hadn't noticed before but the red bio box does appear to be printed slightly longer on the second example here as well.

It's probably a me thing, but I haven't ever understood why Topps went to such effort when DP'ing a card. Into the 70's Topps continued to evidently design many DP'd cards twice leading to slight variations, rather than just copying the same design work. Obviously they wouldn't care about creating a variant back then, but it seems to my printing and graphic-design-uneducated-ass be a lot more work to do it this way.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by G1911

There's a lot of little differences like this on the 2 types that never get talked about or listed publicly when discussing them. I hadn't noticed before but the red bio box does appear to be printed slightly longer on the second example here as well.

It's probably a me thing, but I haven't ever understood why Topps went to such effort when DP'ing a card. Into the 70's Topps continued to evidently design many DP'd cards twice leading to slight variations, rather than just copying the same design work. Obviously they wouldn't care about creating a variant back then, but it seems to my printing and graphic-design-uneducated-ass be a lot more work to do it this way.

Someone must have explained this somewhere. Levi Bleam almost certainly would know, as he has a special affinity for this card and its history, but others on the forum as well. The no line under the Yankees box on the second variation is especially strange to me although of course it makes them easy to spot.