Possible Topps photo proofs?

[Exhibitman]

My (limited) understanding of the process is that anything from Topps would have its holo on back unless it went out before the Vault program, in which case it would be tough to authenticate.

As far as the actual photo used to make the card, there is a difference between a photo that has the same image as the card and a photo that was actually used as the base for the card. There could be multiples of the former, but only one of the latter. One way to tell in the analog era when photos were still retouched by hand before being made into cards is to look for paint or ink on the photos that matches the edits on the card. For example, this is the actual photo Topps used in 1975 to make Pat Riley's card:



And the card:



You can see the paint applied to the photo to black out some extraneous imagery on the left side. The photo's pigments have faded over time (a problem with 1970s color stock) but not the editing. It has a Topps Vault holo and serial # on back.