1970, 1972 & 1976 Topps Stickers - Expanding the Knowledge Base

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Posted By: Dave Hornish

OK, I do not have any 1970 uncut sheet scans from the series the Cloth Stickers are taken from. I really have to believe that this latest information means it's highly likely the checklist is comprised of 44 cards, some possibly partial. The uncut 70 regular issue sheet shown above is truncated and should consist of 11 cards per row, which is a Topps standard for this time frame. I doubt they would rearrange cards for a sticker test run but you never know and the checklist could be far less than 44 or not divisible by 11.

The partials are interesting and known to be possible from the 1972 cloth stickers. The 72's however, are partials from the top row of the sheet. The 70 partials are from the side. The 72 partial sheet shown above shows how this "side cut" could be possible as the gutter in the middle would throw off a machine cut if fed incorrectly. This 72 sheet also illustrates how Topps printed full size press sheets (more on this below). Not sure how Topps tested the cards but they may also have used odd size sheets for the 70 sticker run and it just sliced wherever (I doubt these were guillotine cut). Possibly the proof run is to see how the stickers would cut, not how they would look. In 1972 they did not cut well and that may be true in 1970 as well, resulting in some partials (and abandonment of a full production run).

Another explanation may relate to the fact a full Topps press sheet is 264 cards. Such a sheet is then cut down the gutter in the middle to make two 132 card sheets, which are the familiar version of uncut sheets most of us are used to seeing. Here is a 1964 Press sheet that shows how this would look when a sheet rolls off the printing press:




It's unrelated to this discussion but worth noting for cards issued in series from 1957-73 this could result in a full run of three full 88 card series runs over two sheets. With some slight variations, Topps had used this method at least since 1953 (and possibly in 1952). They likely used the 264 card sheets until they ceased production in Duryea (forget which year). Sometimes, though, the series don't jibe between the two sheets (110 card first series come to mind, or the 77 card 1967 high numbers) and short prints result.

Back to this subject, with the 70 cloth stickers, it looks like the sheet may not have been sliced down the gutter, but through a card adjacent to the gutter. Maybe they used scrap or did not have the cutting machine set right. Perhaps they were cut on different types of machines in an experiment to see which one worked better and normal cards were sliced through.

Does anyone have a scan of the 11 row by 4 column regular 1970 half sheet that the stickers are taken from? The 1972 regular issue sheet of 11 x 3 that's years cloths were taken from would be nice to see as well.