Reconstructing the 1963 Topps 6th and 7th Series Sheets

[Cliff Bowman]

When I originally thought about making this thread I didn't realize how much trouble it would be to make a visual of the sheets, I'm sure it would be much easier for someone who has experience doing that sort of thing. I will start by explaining what I believe is the layout of the sheets. I am certain for both series that the top of the sheet is the yellow based blue inset circle horizontal row, and the bottom 12th row is the red based green inset circle horizontal row upside down. It could be said that the red based green inset circle horizontal row is the top row and the yellow based blue inset circle horizontal row is the bottom row, but I will go with the yellow based blue inset circle row is the top row. I have scans of yellow based blue inset circle cards and red based green inset circle cards that were miscut and show that they were on the top or the bottom of the sheet with no card above or below them. I originally thought the layout of the 12 row sheet consisted of the yellow based blue inset circle row, the yellow based red inset circle row upside down, the blue based orange inset circle row, the blue based red inset circle row upside down, the red based yellow inset circle row, the red based green inset circle row upside down, and then those six rows repeated again. The problem with that is that I was able to find some miscut cards that had small parts of cards from a different color base on them and they were not working out to that pattern. I found a miscut Johnny Blanchard that has a piece of Larry Sherry, a Rusty Staub 4 player rookie card that has a piece of Tom Satriano, and a Steve Dalkowski 4 player rookie card that has piece of the 7th series checklist. So that means that the blue based orange inset circle row butted up against the red based green inset circle row, and the red based yellow inset circle butted up against the yellow based red inset circle row. After a little tinkering, I came up with what I believe is the layout of the rows. It goes yellow based blue inset circle row, yellow based red inset circle row upside down, red based yellow inset circle row, red based green inset circle row upside down, blue based orange inset circle row, blue based red inset circle row upside down, blue based orange inset circle row, blue based red inset circle row upside down, yellow based blue inset circle row, yellow based red inset circle row upside down, red based yellow inset circle row, red based green inset circle row upside down. I was able to find many wrong back 6th series cards that also help explain the layout of the sheets that I will talk about in the next post.

[Cliff Bowman]

I was able to find many wrong back 1963 Topps 6th series cards which are invaluable to trying to figure which cards were next to which. After looking at many of them I figured out what 1963 Topps wrong backs are, all of them are from sheets that had the whole back sheet printed upside down, which is very understandable considering that half of the cards were upside down on each sheet. I had noticed before that 1963 Topps wrong backs always had the same card on the flip side, for instance Glen Hobbie always has a Rocky Colavito back, Roy Sievers always has Tony Oliva on the back, Harvey Haddix always has Sandy Koufax on the back, Mickey Mantle always has Billy O'Dell on the back, and vice versa. When I figured that out I was able to ascertain with the 6th series wrong back cards that a yellow based blue inset circle card always has a red based green inset circle card on the back, a yellow based red inset circle card always has a red based yellow inset circle card on the back, a blue based orange inset circle card always has a blue based red inset circle card on the back, and then it is also true when the sides are flipped. The card in the upper right corner of the sheet, yellow based blue inset circle Curt Flood, will always have the card from the lower left corner of the sheet, red based green inset circle Jay Hook, on the back of a wrong back card, and the same is true with a Jay Hook front and a Curt Flood back of a wrong back. With that in mind, that is how I came up with how I believe how the rows go on each sheet in this order, yellow based blue inset circle row, yellow based red inset circle row, red based yellow inset circle row, red based green inset circle row, blue based orange inset circle row, blue based red inset circle row, blue based orange inset circle row, blue based red inset circle row, yellow based blue inset circle row, yellow based red inset circle row, red based yellow inset circle row, red based green inset circle row. With this pattern it fits in with every wrong back 1963 card that I saw, in other words a 1963 wrong back always has a front with the back of the card that is in the flipped position of that card on the sheet. These are the backs of some 1963 wrong back cards, they almost always have small parts of other cards and are not centered properly.

[Cliff Bowman]

I will explain how later, but I now know 23 of the 24 horizontal row edge cards and exactly which rows the manager cards, team cards, four player rookie cards, and the checklists are on. For the 6th series, the yellow based blue inset circle row has Jimmy Coker and Curt Flood as the edge cards and has Harry Craft and the Braves team card. The yellow based red inset circle row has the #509 checklist and the Bill Freehan four player rookie card as the edge cards. The red based yellow inset circle row has the #431 checklist and the Steve Dalkowski four player rookie card as the edge cards. The red based green inset circle row has Joe Azcue and Jay Hook as the edge cards and also contains Al Lopez and the Mets team card. The blue based orange inset circle row has Ruben Amaro and Jim Landis as the edge cards and also contains the Tom Tresh rookie trophy card. The blue based red inset circle row has Daryl Spencer and the Indians team card as the edge cards. For the 7th series, the yellow based blue inset circle row has Ed Sadowski and Don Cardwell as the edge cards and also contains the Cardinals team card and Sam Mele. The yellow based red inset circle row has the Dave McNally four player rookie card and the #509 checklist card as the edge cards. The red based yellow inset circle row has George Banks on the right edge, I haven't figured out the left edge card yet, and also contains the four player rookie cards of Gary Peters and Marcelino Lopez. The red based green inset circle row has Tom Satriano and Orlando Cepeda as the edge cards and also contains Danny Murtaugh and the Tigers team card. The blue based orange inset circle row has Hal Woodeshick and the Rusty Staub four player rookie card as the edge cards and also contains the Pete Rose four player rookie card. The blue based red inset circle row has Dick Hall and Mike de la Hoz as the edge cards and also contains the Willie Stargell and Ron Hunt four player rookie cards.

[ALR-bishop]

Great project Cliff. Hope others more talented than myself are able to contribute

[Cliff Bowman]

It's a crude attempt, but this is how I believe the 1963 Topps 6th series sheet was printed. These are the edge cards of each horizontal row.

[Cliff Bowman]

The only cards that I have found so far of the 6th series that have parts of two different color based cards are Curt Flood and Steve Dalkowski. The card above Flood is a blue based red inset circle Daryl Spencer, and the card below Dalkowski is the checklist in the yellow based red inset circle row.

[BillP]

great stuff. no sp's.