Not Exactly Vintage, But Close

[Archive]

Posted By: runscott

I had always heard that one of the things that made collecting t206's so interesting was all the 'variations'. I had assumed that some variations would occur because the printing process wasn't as reliable back then. But now that time has passed and I have seen enough t206 cards to make a better judgement, it seems to me that there were many more printing "errors" created during the '60s than prior to WWI. Most of the t206 cards we call "errors" were actually printers scrap or problems that were caught prior to production and intended to go in the waste basket. I don't know about cards produced in the '30s-'50s, but I haven't seen too many Goudey problem cards either, and the '33s and '34s in particular seem to be of much higher quality in general than the card produced in the '60s.

On the other hand, those of us who collected cards during the '60s are all too familiar with opening a pack and finding a card with the color registration off by an inch or more, or parts of two different cards printed on one piece of cardboard...even stat backs that didn't match the front at all. I guess this was because packaging was more automated in the '60s, so problems weren't as likely to be found.