1981 Topps varieties

[steve B]

I've been going through a large batch of 1981 Topps I've had for years. Mostly to find the nicest ones and to be able to get rid of the remainder. Used to be about 15000 cards, down to about 7500-10000. Unfortunately, hardly any over number 528 (Longish story)

Anyway, as I'm going throught them I'm looking for variations, printing errors etc. Most of what didn't get pulled long ago is very minor but I'll be typing up the list eventually. When I'm done I'll post about it.

But I have found one interesting thing.

There are 2 different sorts of backs. There are the normal backs and what I'll call "low contrast backs" sometimes they're a bit hard to pick out, as the pinkish red ink on the back can be light or dark or faded. Here's a scan of an easier example.


The lower one is normal, the upper one low contrast.
At first glance it looks light or maybe faded, but on a second look the screened field behind the stats is actually darker than the normal card while the header panel is lighter. With a high res scan I can see a very slight diffeence in the screen(The dot pattern ) as well.

These seem to be fairly easy to find from the C sheet, a bit less so from the other sheets. Which is strange becasue there should be another sheet they're common on. I'm thinking they're roughly 1 in 20 C sheet cards, maybe the same on the D sheet although those seem more subtle in the difference.
I don't have many at all from the other sheets.

bear in mind that I'm not saying they should be worth anything above a regular 1981 topps, or that any catalog should list them. After all, 1 in 20 1981 topps is still quite common, and even if the other sheets are 1 in 250 that's still common. But they are out there, and would make a nice challenge for a player collector or someone really into 1981 Topps.

The other general varieties are those with yellowish gloss, and a few with a much smoother gloss. There are some cardboard differences too, one I might actually call scarce but I'll do those another time.

Steve B

[xdrx]

That's interesting Steve. Is it known how the cards are printed? One batch, run on one printing press? Or might there be numerous runs on numerous machines?

[Cliff Bowman]

Many of the 66 double prints in the 1981 Topps Set have a printing flaw variation where the black line on the top border is completely missing or partially missing. Please let me know if you find any, I know of 22 or so of these but there are undoubtedly more.

[steve B]

At the time they were printed in large sheets, 2 -132 card sheets side by side. 132 card sheets are around for most sets from the late 70's-80's.

Since they made so many, they would have needed more than one plate for each color, plus the gloss. In 81 there's 66 double prints, (11 to a row, one row doubled on each sheet) As plates wore out they would have made new ones, and it's probable that they used more than one press. by the later 80's there were multiple printing plants and things get pretty wild.

It's possible they had different plants print and pack different products, so there would be quite a few plates. Interestingly, I'm only finding one or two varieties for most cards. The batch I have is a dealer inventory I bought in the late 80's, so they shpuld be from a bunch of different sources.

I'll have to compare my list with the list of the missing top line cards. I may have a few new partial top line ones, but I won't know till I compare the lists.

Steve B

[Cliff Bowman]

Thanks for replying, these are the ones that I have: from the E* sheet I have all eleven, #11 Wohlford, #51 B. Robinson, #94 Spilman, #183 Davis, #296 Nahorodny, #332 Lacy (partial line), #346 Christenson, #391 Lemanczyk, #414 Pacella (partial line), #437 Heath, #453 Wilfong; from the F* sheet I have #82 Astros Future Stars, #93 Glynn, #128 Allenson (partial line), #383 Soderholm (partial line), #472 D. Miller, #694 Harrelson; from the D* sheet I have #31 Checklist 1-121 (partial line) and #564 Hassey. I can't say for certain but I believe the other 5 double prints from sheet F* are probably missing at least some of the lines, but I haven't seen any yet. These five cards are #323 Morrison, #352 Tidrow, #443 Beattie, #536 Owchinko, #606 Reds Future Stars. I have read that these double prints from sheets A*-C* are possibly missing some of the lines but I have never seen any: #15 Larry Parrish, #265 Candelaria, #336 Whitson.

[ALR-bishop]

Besides those listed I have a 94 Spillman with a missing line, a yellow line,and a black streak, and a 169 Robinson with line, missing line and partial line, and Miller # 472 with line or not

A Renko # 63 with a red blob on the bill of the border cap, # 311 Lamp with black marks in sky to left

Lacy with line, no line and partial

[Cliff Bowman]

Thanks Mr. Richter, that's more cards I have to look for now .

[steve B]

HA! Just wait, The list I'm putting together is pretty long. I'm also -on the same list at the moment including marks that are consistent from one card to the next.

That's my process for finding ones I'm sure are varieties. I look for marks that are identical on a number of cards and then check for ones missing those marks. The only exceptions are known ones like the upper lines, and very obvious ones like large plate scratches.

Steve B