seeking knowledge re: 1955 Topps baseball sheets

[ClementeFanOh]

Hi all- I'm putting out the bat signal for anyone with knowledge about
player placement in 1955 Topps baseball sheets. A friend of mine (truly, it's
not me) obtained a 55 Topps Sandy Koufax in which a partial border of the
player "above" Sandy on the sheet, can be seen. My friend wondered who
that player is. I am weak in this area and am asking net54 for some help.
Were players placed in the same spot on those sheets, time after time? Does
anyone know who the player above Sandy was? Feel free to PM, and thank
you for your subject matter knowledge. Trent King

[Cliff Bowman]

Can you show a scan of the miscut 55 Koufax? If there’s enough showing of the other player we may be able to figure it out that way.

[ClementeFanOh]

Hi Cliff- thanks for replying. I don't own the card so I can't send a scan.
The only thing visible is maybe 1/16 inch of yellow border on the top part
of Sandy's card. There's no other coloring or any hint about player ID. That's
why I was hoping the sheets were uniform. Trent King

[Cliff Bowman]

That knocks it down to 18 possible cards in the 1955 Topps 2nd Series, cards that have a yellow name/position/team band. Even if there is only a sliver of the career stat line visible on the back it might be possible to pinpoint which of the 18 cards it is. I am not aware of any pics of 1955 Topps 2nd Series sheets.

[ClementeFanOh]

Cliff- thank you! I'll have my friend check the back then, that's very helpful.

Trent King

[ClementeFanOh]

Ok gang- I have embarked on a very (!) amateur sleuthing quest for the
sheet question on 55 Topps. On ebay, I found a severely miscut Warren
Spahn card #31 (first series). It was easily possible to see the stat line for
the "unknown" player on the back top of Spahn's card. There is no question
it's another Spahn...ebay seller is "sc-tarheelvintage" and ebay item
number is 174709094130. Also, my friend found a miscut 55 Topps Gil
Hodges where you can see the tip of a ballcap at the bottom of the whole
Hodges. The color and physical location of that additional cap are a match
for Gil's cap in the whole card, so it looks like it's another Hodges.

Given this result, it is reasonable to conclude that 55 Topps sheets were
single player sheets? Again, this is NOT my area of expertise by any stretch
of the imagination. In the case of my friend whose 55 Koufax miscut led to
this thread, the color visible for the partial card is the Koufax yellow. It
seems he got a Koufax and and more Koufax, on his purchase of the SGC 1
miscut

I'd enjoy reading more input. Thank you, Trent King

[GasHouseGang]

Here's a picture of a sheet that was auctioned that has Spahn.

[G1911]

Only a first series sheet, above, is known. Absolutely not single player sheets.
Series 2 (probably 90-99, 111-150 or 160) and 3 sheets I do not believe are known to have surfaced.

[ClementeFanOh]

Gashouse Gang- Thank you! Incredible. Interesting that Spahn is the only
player on that Series 1 to be printed in the same place in two rows, so that he
is sequentially in the same spot. So, the ebay Spahn miscut absolutely is
his card Regarding the final series Gil Hodges miscut I mentioned, but
cannot depict, it absolutely is him as well. I guess my friend won't know
re: his Koufax unless or until a corresponding sheet is discovered/revealed.,,

I did find a June 2022 post from Toppcat (Dave Hornish) on 55 Topps uncut
sheets, as well as an article online from 2019 "Topps Archives" that were
detailed for lower numbered cards. These were interesting reads for sure.

Trent King

[Cliff Bowman]

Originally Posted by ClementeFanOh

Regarding the final series Gil Hodges miscut I mentioned, but
cannot depict, it absolutely is him as well.

Trent King

I think this is the 55 Topps Gil Hodges miscut you are referring to, it is #180 Clem Labine under Hodges not another Hodges. If you have a different miscut I apologize.

[ClementeFanOh]

Cliff- thank you, looks like you are correct. I guess this is why I was never
intrigued by sheet placement Looks like my friend may never know the
identity of whose card was intruding on his Sandy! Trent King

[toppcat]

Love of the Game offered what appears to be the other first series slit awhile back.

https://bid.loveofthegameauctions.co...e?itemid=18569

[toppcat]

I toted up the number of impresisons for each player across both slits. Topps clearly included a bunch in the "series two" sheets that came after:

FIVE IMPRESSIONS (1)
70 ROSEN

FOUR IMPRESSIONS (15)
14 FINIGAN
23 PARKS
29 WEHMEIER
31 SPAHN
58 RIVERA
59 ALLIE
61 JACOBS
62 KIPPER
67 MOON
80 GRIM
81 CONLEY
84 PASCUAL
86 WILSON

THREE IMPRESSIONS (30)
2 WILLIAMS
3 FOWLER
7 HEGAN
8 SMITH
10 KEEGAN
16 SIEVERS
18 KEMMERER
19 HERMAN
24 NEWHOUSER
26 GROAT
30 POWER
32 McGHEE
33 QUALTERS
34 TERWILLIGER
36 KIELY
39 GLYNN
45 SAUER
49 PORTER
57 O'DELL
63 COLLINS
64 TRIANDOS
66 JACKSON
72 OLSON
77 PORTOCARRERO
78 JONES
82 HARMON
83 BREWER
89 FRAZIER
100 IRVIN
106 SULLIVAN

TWO IMPRESSIONS (15)
5 GILLIAM
11 FAIN
13 MARSH
20 CAREY
25 PODRES
40 HOAK
41 STOBBS
47 AARON
50 ROBINSON
54 LIMMER
55 REPULSKI
74 BORKOWSKI
90 SPOONER
103 WHITE
105 DIERING

ONE IMPRESSION (35)
1 RHODES
4 KALINE
6 HACK
9 MILLER
12 THEIS
17 HOFMAN
21 GRAMMAS
22 SKOWRON
27 GRADNER
28 BANKS
37 CUNNINGHAM
38 TURLEY
42 McCALL
43 HADDIX
44 VALENTINE
46 KAZANSKI
48 KENENDY
52 TREMEL
53 TAYLOR
56 JABLONSKI
60 STONE
65 BOONE
68 DAVIS
69 BAILEY
71 GOMEZ
73 SHEPARD
76 POLLET
79 SCHELL
85 MOSSI
87 HOUSE
88 SKINNER
102 WESTLAKE
104 HARSHMAN
107 ROBERTS
108 WALKER

ZERO IMPRESSIONS (14)
15 PENDLETON
35 JOLLY
51 HUGHES
75 AMOROS
91 BOLLING
92 ZIMMER
93 BILKO
94 BERTOIA
95 WARD
96 BISHOP
97 PAULA
98 RIDDLE
99 LEJA
110 ZERNIAL

[stevepoland]

Do you happen to know the card numbers for Series 2 and Series 3, respectively?

Per your mention below, is Series 2: 111-150 (or 111-160)
And Series 3: 151-210 (or 161-210)
?

Thanks!

Originally Posted by G1911

Only a first series sheet, above, is known. Absolutely not single player sheets.
Series 2 (probably 90-99, 111-150 or 160) and 3 sheets I do not believe are known to have surfaced.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by stevepoland

Do you happen to know the card numbers for Series 2 and Series 3, respectively?

Per your mention below, is Series 2: 111-150 (or 111-160)
And Series 3: 151-210 (or 161-210)
?

Thanks!

I don't know for certain; most of series 1 is known (beyond the sheets above in this thread) because there are 2 different stock backs, one whiter than the more creamy one. Some cards were held back, like 90-99, which we knew because you only find them with 1 stock only. Kind of a 1953 Topps style situation.

Series 2 presumably has these hold backs, as they don't seem to be more difficult to find like the final series. It seems to me series 2 probably catches us up to 160, as 161+ do seem to me to be a little bit tougher to find. So series 2 I expect will have 50 cards + the holdbacks - possibly a handful of numbers held back again that were pushed into series 3, making for another odd sheet any way we slice it. Series 3 I expect to have the 50 cards 161-210 printed twice each (4 for the DP's that replaced the missing card numbers). It's possible 151-160 were included in series 3, these 10 cards are sometimes bucketed as a different group and something unique may have happened there, possibly mirroring 90-99. I suspect, contrary to the hobby opinion, that it wasn't really contractual issues with 4 players that led to the no prints, but numbers just being held back as they were in earlier series to issue later, like Topps did throughout 1953. I suspect this set may not have been intended originally to end at 210.

I hope a sheet will surface and we might be able to do more than make reasonable deductions. This is a really fun set.

[Kevvyg1026]

Here is a miscut of #15. I believe it is Mossi underneath

1955_15_botcard.jpg

[Kevvyg1026]

1955_91_Bolling.jpg

1955_93_Bilko_brown.jpg

1955_93_Bilko_top.jpg

1955_96_bilko_Bishop.jpg

[Kevvyg1026]

Orienting the cards similar to that from 1960 (i.e., name banner at right, number on back at top of card), I think Bishop (96) is below Bolling (91) and Ray Crone (149) is to the right of Bishop. So there is definite evidence of the skip numbering.

1955_miscuts_missing.jpg

[Kevvyg1026]

Cliff and I have been examining miscuts for Topps BB cards from 1955, in the hopes that we can re-create the slit patterns for cards 91-99 and 110 to 210. Although the gathering of the evidence is not complete, it appears that the miscuts we've found support a 2nd series printing of cards numbered 91-99 plus 110-160 (60 total distinct cards) with another print pattern consisting of cards 161-210 (with 4 DPs to account for the 4 cards not printed).

In other words, any miscut we've found that we've been able to identify from cards 91-99 and 110 to 210 is adjacent to another card from that number group.

Similarly, all miscuts we've been able to identify from cards numbered 161-210 are adjacent to another card from this same group.

[Cliff Bowman]

Originally Posted by ClementeFanOh

Hi all- I'm putting out the bat signal for anyone with knowledge about
player placement in 1955 Topps baseball sheets. A friend of mine (truly, it's
not me) obtained a 55 Topps Sandy Koufax in which a partial border of the
player "above" Sandy on the sheet, can be seen. My friend wondered who
that player is. I am weak in this area and am asking net54 for some help.
Were players placed in the same spot on those sheets, time after time? Does
anyone know who the player above Sandy was? Feel free to PM, and thank
you for your subject matter knowledge. Trent King

Two and half years later Kevin and I finally got around to rebuilding the 1955 Topps 2nd Series sheets and we are positive Joey Jay is the card to the left of Sandy Koufax with the yellow showing on the Sandy Koufax miscut. Hopefully we will have a visual reconstruction of the 1955 Topps 2nd Series posted in the near future. We are now trying to rebuild the 1955 3rd Series but I’m afraid we don’t have enough miscuts to complete it, there is quite a difference in quantities of 1955 3rd Series cards versus 1955 2nd Series card scans available on eBay and elsewhere.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by Cliff Bowman

Two and half years later Kevin and I finally got around to rebuilding the 1955 Topps 2nd Series sheets and we are positive Joey Jay is the card to the left of Sandy Koufax with the yellow showing on the Sandy Koufax miscut. Hopefully we will have a visual reconstruction of the 1955 Topps 2nd Series posted in the near future. We are now trying to rebuild the 1955 3rd Series but I’m afraid we don’t have enough miscuts to complete it, there is quite a difference in quantities of 1955 3rd Series cards versus 1955 2nd Series card scans available on eBay and elsewhere.

Very cool, can't wait to see. Is there a list of 3rd series cards you guys are looking for miscut? Might help to crowdsource and see if any of us here have them

[Cliff Bowman]

Originally Posted by G1911

Very cool, can't wait to see. Is there a list of 3rd series cards you guys are looking for miscut? Might help to crowdsource and see if any of us here have them

If you have any miscuts between 161-210 that would be awesome if you can post them. The 2nd Series ended up being 91-99 and 110-160, two of the six rows were short printed and Eddie Mathews was on one of those rows. Sandy Koufax and Harmon Killebrew were on regular print rows.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by Cliff Bowman

If you have any miscuts between 161-210 that would be awesome if you can post them. The 2nd Series ended up being 91-99 and 110-160, two of the six rows were short printed and Eddie Mathews was on one of those rows. Sandy Koufax and Harmon Killebrew were on regular print rows.

Pulled out my box and found only 1 I can see another card on. 192 Jim Delsing, the front bottom right (picture orientation, not sheet orientation) I can see a strip of yellow that may not show up in 200kb sizing [the adjacent card might not be yellow as it could be slight ink misalignment]. Can see more on the back, probably not enough to identify anything.

Also, note the print splotch on front right border. Don't remember if I've brought this one to the defects thread.

[Kevvyg1026]

The 2nd series had cards 60 distinct cards, numbered 91-99 plus 110-160. Each of the two slits would have 11 rows of 10 cards each; thus there are 6 distinct rows to account for the 60 unique cards. We did not find any evidence of row switches, nor of the same player being moved to different columns within the slits.

Since there are 22 different rows across the full sheet, this would mean 4 of the rows were printed 4x each and the remaining 2 rows, printed 3x each across the full sheet.

[Cliff Bowman]

Originally Posted by G1911

Pulled out my box and found only 1 I can see another card on. 192 Jim Delsing, the front bottom right (picture orientation, not sheet orientation) I can see a strip of yellow that may not show up in 200kb sizing [the adjacent card might not be yellow as it could be slight ink misalignment]. Can see more on the back, probably not enough to identify anything.

Also, note the print splotch on front right border. Don't remember if I've brought this one to the defects thread.

I figured out what's going on with that Delsing card, it is Gil Hodges beside Delsing. Hodges has a design flaw where his picture extends further than it should. Thanks for posting it.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by Cliff Bowman

I figured out what's going on with that Delsing card, it is Gil Hodges beside Delsing. Hodges has a design flaw where his picture extends further than it should. Thanks for posting it.

Thank you for solving this mystery I've been wondering about!

[Cliff Bowman]

I found this one from a different nearly five year old 1955 Topps thread that G1911 (Greg) also posted. ETA Correction, it is actually Ed Roebuck beside Pillette and not Owens or Oldis. Thanks to Kevin for correcting me.

[G1911]

179 Bolger with what looks to be a red card to the right of it (below, in picture orientation) and a rounded black top team logo. From an expired eBay listing.

[G1911]

166 Bauer next to 171 Brodowski, from LuckyLarry in a different thread

[G1911]

And 192 Delsing again, showing a card to the right. Looks like a Red Sox player, with enough of the cartoon showing to probably make it identifiable. I can pull out my 1955 set tonight to find the match.

[G1911]

A 191 Stanky (one of the DP's) showing a sliver of a blue name box to left (above card image)

[Cliff Bowman]

Awesome! I'm pretty sure that's Jim Delsing beside Bolger and Billy Consolo beside Delsing. Keep them coming!

[Cliff Bowman]

Originally Posted by G1911

A 191 Stanky (one of the DP's) showing a sliver of a blue name box to left (above card image)

I have a better example of the Stanky but I still can't tell who it is next to him. Throneberry, Zauchin, Sain, Jensen, Lollar, and Daley are still available. I am curious why you described Stanky as a DP, though. He isn't one of the four well known DP's, Baumholtz, Pearce, Perkowski, or Silvera. Is it thought that he is on a row that was printed more than the other rows? I have miscuts showing Stanky above Snider AND under Snider so it would make sense for the row Stanky is on to be a DP row. I also have a scan of a miscut 55 Clemente beside Stanky so that would also make Clemente a DP.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by Cliff Bowman

I have a better example of the Stanky but I still can't tell who it is next to him. Throneberry, Zauchin, Silvera, Sain, Jensen, Lollar, and Daley are still available. I am curious why you described Stanky as a DP, though. He isn't one of the four well known DP's, Baumholtz, Pearce, Perkowski, or Silvera. Is it thought that he is on a row that was printed more than the other rows? I have miscuts showing Stanky above Snider AND under Snider so it would make sense for the row Stanky is on to be a DP row. I also have a scan of a miscut 55 Clemente beside Stanky so that would also make Clemente a DP.

I should have said it differently or left out. I think Stanky is one of the extra prints - I don't think, based on population samples I've had in the past, that all 50 cards (counting the 4 replacement cards twice as they clearly are true DP's) were produced in an equal number of slots. The third series does not seem to exist in equal or close to equal quantity. Rows may have changed and cycled like Bowman did, or some rows were produced more than others as a constant on the two slits, inconsistent rows, or something else, but I will be surprised if it is found to be a straightforward 46 single print + the 4 extra slots for the double prints to replace the missing numbers.

I would not be surprised if Clemente is an extra print of some kind at all, just really hard to compare populations for a superstar rookie that gets all the attention.

[Cliff Bowman]

You are correct about there having to be “DP” rows in the 1955 Topps 3rd Series, each slit has 11 rows which would come out to 22 rows over two slits. There are five unique rows in the 1955 3rd Series so if each row is printed 4 times that comes out to 20 rows, that means there would be two more rows printed again for a total of 5x for each of those rows. The 1955 Topps 2nd Series was the opposite, there were six unique rows in that series so that meant that two of the six rows had to be printed 3x rather than 4x in order to fill out the 22 rows over the two slits. There ended up being two “SP” rows in the 1955 2nd Series.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by Cliff Bowman

You are correct about there having to be “DP” rows in the 1955 Topps 3rd Series, each slit has 11 rows which would come out to 22 rows over two slits. There are five unique rows in the 1955 3rd Series so if each row is printed 4 times that comes out to 20 rows, that means there would be two more rows printed again for a total of 5x for each of those rows. The 1955 Topps 2nd Series was the opposite, there were six unique rows in that series so that meant that two of the six rows had to be printed 3x rather than 4x in order to fill out the 22 rows over the two slits. There ended up being two “SP” rows in the 1955 2nd Series.

I'm pretty sure Stanky alongside some of the others in seemingly abundant supply will end up being on one of the extra rows, but maybe I should refrain from these guesses when we may be able to actually prove something. I don't know how much data you guys have outside this thread for the high numbers but I will keep looking for other miscuts. Hopefully other folks can add their own miscuts.

Is there a chart of the cards numbers and rows/columns for the second series? I saw the post in the other thread but it appears the columns are reversed or off? My 55 set is long ago complete minus Clemente who I don't want to pay $1,500 for just yet but I am curious. 54 and 55 are two of the better ones to identify as the series have not been positively known outside of series 1.

[Cliff Bowman]

Originally Posted by G1911

I'm pretty sure Stanky alongside some of the others in seemingly abundant supply will end up being on one of the extra rows, but maybe I should refrain from these guesses when we may be able to actually prove something. I don't know how much data you guys have outside this thread for the high numbers but I will keep looking for other miscuts. Hopefully other folks can add their own miscuts.

Is there a chart of the cards numbers and rows/columns for the second series? I saw the post in the other thread but it appears the columns are reversed or off? My 55 set is long ago complete minus Clemente who I don't want to pay $1,500 for just yet but I am curious. 54 and 55 are two of the better ones to identify as the series have not been positively known outside of series 1.

Yeah, I messed up on the 1955 Topps 2nd Series layout, hopefully Dewey will be able to fix my mistake when he has time. The two rows on the 1955 2nd Series that are short printed are the Amalfitano row and the Carroll row, and what's really interesting is the Carroll row is all ten cards numbered 151-160, including Eddie Mathews. I have noticed that some checklists have cards 151-160 listed separately at a slightly higher price so I believe dealers and collectors noticed years ago that 151-160 were in lesser quantities than most of the other cards in the series. ETA I don't think the 1955 Topps 3rd Series is a dead end like 1965 6th Series and 1957 5th Series have turned out to be but we need all of the miscuts we can get a hold of, plus there are row changes in the 1955 3rd Series which makes it more complicated.

[Cliff Bowman]

Here are the 1955 Topps 2nd Series slits that Dewey fixed after my screw up. 1955 Topps and 1956 Topps slits are actually supposed to be vertical rather than horizontal concerning the rows but they just look better horizontal.

[Cliff Bowman]

Here is the second slit.

[G1911]

Thank you Cliff, Dewey and Kevin, this is awesome to finally identify and see.