Any idea what this mark is?

[steve B]

Is the mark black or under the black? If it's under the black or brownish it's probably a defect in the cardboard before printing, most likely caused by water.

If it's black - Then it's could be caused by a drop of water getting on the printing plate after it was wiped. The press wets the plate, wipes off excess water, then inks it, The ink won't stick to the wet places. If a drop of water gets on the plate between wiping and inking it can make a mark similar to that one. (Or worse, one of the many cards I need to scan is a card where there was a lot of excess water on the plate)

It could have happened on the red plate, in which case the mark would be red. But since its under the red ...

Steve B

[Doug]

Originally Posted by steve B

Is the mark black or under the black? If it's under the black or brownish it's probably a defect in the cardboard before printing, most likely caused by water.

Steve B

I probably need to rescan the card, because the current scan makes that mark look 10 times worse than it is in real life (it's very tough to see unless you are looking at it on purpose). The mark isn't black, it's more of a different shade of brown. The mark is very faint, but it does seem that the black ink is printed over top of it because like with the red star, the print seems completely solid and the mark only seems to show up in the blank areas.

[toppcat]

This has nothing to do with anything but it looks like a football teed up on the red star!

I think the cardboard stock Topps used for your card likely had a imperpefction at the time of printing.

[Doug]

Originally Posted by toppcat

This has nothing to do with anything but it looks like a football teed up on the red star!

I think the cardboard stock Topps used for your card likely had a imperfection at the time of printing.

Since it was apparently printed that way maybe it's a rare variation like the Campos "black star" card. Instead it's the rare 1/1 Willie Mays "brown football" variation! I'll start the bidding at $100k...

[nebboy]

Could be a drop of swet from the worker that was loading the heavey cardboard stock into the feeder of the press.

[mab]

In that case, wouldn't it be a 1/1 DNA card?

[Doug]

Originally Posted by mab

In that case, wouldn't it be a 1/1 DNA card?

I had thought of that too. Who wants a game used jersey card when you can have a Topps employee drop of sweat card?