Soaked Myself in the Foot - A Cautionary Tale

[bnorth]

That sucks and the reason I always try a common from the same set first.

[steve B]

That's very strange.

Lithography works because the inks aren't water based. So the damp plate keeps the ink away from places you don't want inked.

An ink for lithography that's water soluble after 44 years isn't anything I'd have expected. Fugitive inks that won't retain color in either water or oil based solvents are a thing as are doubly fugitive inks that lose color in nearly any fluid.

But those are mostly used to prevent something from being altered or reused - like checks or stamps.
Not really a concern Topps would have had back then. Or even now.