Variations in W516-1 set

[marcdelpercio]

I have been collecting and studying all of the cards from the W516 family recently and have noticed a major difference in several of the W516-1's. I know that there are variances in shading/color in this set (and most strip cards in general), however, these appear to have been printed with two completely separate paper stocks and methods.

One variation has a bright white, thicker, multi-layered, almost glossy paper stock. Notice the chipping around the border of the Burns card below.

The other version is printed on a thinner, single-layered, tan colored paper stock.

All cards seem to appear in both versions and are otherwise identical. I have searched past threads and have not been able to find any other mention or discussion of this. Just wondering if anybody else has noticed or catalogued this or if anybody would even consider this to be a difference worth noting.

[fkw]

good find, youd think that this card stock difference would have been "discovered" (noted) sooner, as a set collector would have seen the color differences easily with the cards side by side.

I was thinking it was going to be because some of the cards have the ""UNIVERSAL BASE BALL MATCHING CARDS" line at top, but your Burns has enough of the top border to show that it probably isnt from the set.... ???

PS on your cards.....the dotted line on the right side of Burns is missing on 1 variation, that and the blue shadow on ground and line below trees of the Bodie card are the only differences I see with the printing

here are a few scans I have from the set...

[marcdelpercio]

Thanks for the input Frank. Sounds like this difference may not have been officially noted before. Your observation about the dotted line on the Burns seems to prove that these were indeed printed differently.

Both versions appear to be similarly common based on a quick ebay search of what's available now. Anybody else have any thoughts on these?

[Tom S.]

Bump...

Don't have much to add to this thread except to show my two examples (the cards have been cropped a little differently).

It looks like the card on the left is missing a flesh-tone color pass - is this common for this issue?

[steve B]

I don't think it's missing, rather entirely different.

To me it looks like there's only one red pass on the one on darker cardboard.

The yellow pass and black pass are definetly different, the trees behind him only come to the shoulder on one, and head high on the other.

The differences in the black are a bit more subtle, but there. Is the white one a cell phone pic or a scan? If it's a scan then the differences are a bit more obvious or it has two black passes.

Steve B

[Tom S.]

Steve, both cards were scanned.

The card with the white stock sure does have two black passes - it is easy to see with a magnifying glass (especially in the printing and the crop lines at the bottom of the card).

The red looks to be applied totally different on each card too. On the white stock card, there is red only on Schalk's cheeks and in his catchers mitt.

On the tan stock card there is red applied to the mitt area, but his entire face has red print dots; his forearms and the ground have some red in them too. The red ink along with the color of the paper stock must be what gives the appearance of flesh tones in the second card.