1980 Topps Greg Pryor No Name and his not so blue friends

[Cliff Bowman]

The 1980 Topps Greg Pryor missing name on the front of the card has been known for several years, but there are other 1980 Topps cards missing names or missing blue ink at the top of the cards. The missing blue ink occurs on the top rows of the A* and B* sheets, which were printed on the same very large 264 card sheet before they were cut in half to make two separate 132 card sheets. Just like the yellow name cards on the E* and F* sheets, the only cards affected were on the top rows. I don't know what caused this printing flaw, but I don't believe it was running out of blue ink. On the A* sheet, there are Greg Pryor name missing, Jose Morales missing blue in position banner, Pepe Frias unaffected, Scott Sanderson possibly missing blue in border line (don't have), Ted Sizemore missing blue in position banner, Doug Bair missing name, Roger Metzger missing blue in position banner and name yellow rather than green, Mike LaCoss missing name, Willie Stargell missing blue in position banner, Alan Trammell possibly missing blue in border line (don't have), Jim Palmer unaffected, on the B* sheet Manny Sanguillen missing blue in position banner (don't have), Joe Nolan unaffected, Tom Donohue missing name, Wayne Garland unaffected, Mike Parrott missing blue in position banner and name yellow rather than green (don't have), John Ellis unaffected, Mike Squires missing name (don't have), Eric Soderholm unaffected, John Lowenstein unaffected, Marty Pattin possibly missing blue in position banner (don't have), Dick Davis unaffected. The difference between the 1980 Topps missing name cards and the 1980 Topps yellow name cards is that when there is missing blue ink the space is blank, and where there is missing red ink there remained yellow letters in the space.

[steve B]

That's really interesting.

I agree that it's not low ink. I believe they ran through top or bottom first, so running out of ink should be either the whole sheet, or a more gradual transition, or down the side. Down the side would be an adjustment the press operator can make. The inking levels can sort of be controlled to be heavier or lighter on different parts of the sheet.

I'm not thinking of too many things that could happen that would give that sort of transition and also the partial inking.

My current thought is that a piece of sheet was stuck to the blanket, so it got inked, but not well. But having just maybe a half inch or less peel off one end of a sheet would be strange, stranger that it happened multiple times.

[mrmopar]

Maybe there was always a market for this type of thing and certainly, there are some biggies that are nationally known from the past, like the 58 Herrera or the 49 Leaf Hermansk. It would seem those only appealed to specialty collectors though. I have noticed it more mainstream in the last couple decades or so though, probably dating back to the 1990 NNOF craze that brought this kind of thing into everyone's minds.

I have to chuckle a little though, as cards like that would have probably been trash can bound if I had gotten them in packs as a kid. Factory defects that I would have felt cheated with because I did not get new, crisp and mint cards in perfect condition!

I even find myself grabbing them now if they stand out enough and are not too expensive.

[steve B]

For a while, the local dealer I hung out at would save the occasional messed up card for me and I'd usually get them for free.

Then other people started wanting them and I had to pay for the ones I liked.

[ALR-bishop]

Thanks for posting Cliff

[TTOMAE8833]

Hi guys, I have no idea if any of you are still actively monitoring your posts here, but it seems like there is some amazing expertise on this thread around the 1980 Topps missing or rainbow ink cards. I’m hoping someone can help. I recently picked up a 5000 count box of 1980s Topps commons to swap into my hand-collated set. As I was going through I noticed that one of the KC Royals team cards was missing the 'mgr JIM FREY' name across the top of the card. I have five or six of the standard cards in the box itself, but this was the only one missing the ink. I have not seen any others, nor have I seen any other forums discussing this particular card as having a missing ink variation.

I also learned that Frey is not even on the card. It's a 1979 team photo so Whitey Herzog is the manager shown in the card. I don't know if that means anything, but is it possible Topps realized this also and removed the 'mgr JIM FREY' from the card intentionally? Would think if this was indeed the case more of them would be known to the public. Hoping someone can give me an idea of what I've got, scarcity, and maybe value?

I’m considering sending it to PSA to put under their microscopes as well to se if it was manually removed post-production by whomever had it before me. I would upload an image but I have no idea how to do it from this site. The image is saved as a jpeg on my desktop but the site is asking for a URL?

[Cliff Bowman]

That card has JIM FREY in black ink and it would be on the left side of the card on the printing sheet when the card is upright. Either someone erased it at some point or the card was printed blackless or partially blackless. Does it have the two thin black border lines around the blue oval that surrounds the photo? Are any of the thin black border lines partially missing? Can you please show a scan? There are two 1980 Topps team cards that I have long suspected of partially missing black ink but they are the Yankees and Indians, not the Royals.

[TTOMAE8833]

Hi Cliff, thank you very much for responding! The rest of the card looks as it should. The thin black lines exist around the blue border and the the black shadow behind the pennant is also visible. The only downside I've found is whoever owned it before me marked up the back of the card with ink

I would love to post a scan, for sure. What is the best way of posting it to this thread?

[Cliff Bowman]

I hate to say it, but I suspect a kid had fun with an eraser 40 years ago.

[JollyElm]

Originally Posted by TTOMAE8833

I would upload an image but I have no idea how to do it from this site. The image is saved as a jpeg on my desktop but the site is asking for a URL?

When you open the box to reply to the post, look for the paper clip icon at top (to the right of the 'A' and white smiley face), as you can see here (took this screenshot as I wrote this post)...

Screen Shot 2020-09-01 at 1.54.38 PM.jpg

Click on that and the 'Manage Attachments' box will appear...

Screen Shot 2020-09-01 at 1.54.58 PM.jpg

Hit the 'Choose File' button and go find the pic on your desktop and hit 'choose' or 'okay' or whatever it says for you. After you do that, hit 'Upload,' which is to the right of 'Choose File.'

When that is done, return to the posting window, hit the paper clip icon again and drag down to the file you uploaded, as such...

Screen Shot 2020-09-01 at 2.00.15 PM.jpg

Then it'll insert your image into the post (sandwiched by the word ATTACH)...

Screen Shot 2020-09-01 at 1.58.54 PM.jpg

Then hit 'Preview Post' to see what it looks like.

If you run into problems, 99% of the time it will be due to the size of the graphic, so make it smaller and try again. It seems to vary by user here, but for me personally, the largest file that is seemingly allowed is 1.2MB, somewhere around there.

If frustration takes over and you can't deal with it, send me the file through a private message and I'll post it for you.

[TTOMAE8833]

That is definitely my first thought as well. I always assume the worst and hope for the best when it comes to these kinds of things LOL. Having said that, I've been collecting for 40 years now (I’m 47) and scuffed up enough cards as a kid to know what to look for and the card looks clean, no scraping or eraser marks that would be tell-tale signs of the ink being removed manually, no visible scuffs in the area or any loss of gloss, etc. I hope my image I created is visible.

[TTOMAE8833]

1980 kc.jpg

Thanks for the assist Jolly Elm!

[Cliff Bowman]

I have a 1978 Topps Lerrin LaGrow that is missing the P in the baseball. I had hoped that it was a very rare variation, but since another one has never showed up I have grudgingly accepted that it was almost certainly erased by someone years ago, but they did a terrific job doing it.

[TTOMAE8833]

Lerrin LaGrow wow. That is a name I haven't heard in a long, long time...

Originally Posted by Cliff Bowman

I have a 1978 Topps Lerrin LaGrow that is missing the P in the baseball. I had hoped that it was a very rare variation, but since another one has never showed up I have grudgingly accepted that it was almost certainly erased by someone years ago, but they did a terrific job doing it.

[Cliff Bowman]

Thanks to a fellow board member I now have all five possible 1980 Topps missing name cards, these were players with blue names on the top row of the A* and B* sheets. It was Mike Squires that I was missing. A recurring print flaw caused the cards on the top row of the A* and B* sheets to not have blue ink printed on the tops of the cards. Unlike the similar print flaw of red names and aqua green names that left a yellow name when the red ink or blue ink was missing, the cards with blue names left nothing when the blue ink was missing. Of the 20 possible missing blue ink cards (I don't think Palmer or Lowenstein are possible), I don't have examples of Sanderson, Sanguillen, Nolan, Garland, Ellis, Soderholm, or Ellis. It's possible some of those don't exist because the flaw would have to go deep into the card.

[ALR-bishop]

The Pryor has other issues as well

[4reals]

Cool, always knew about these but never realized it was because they were on the top row on the sheet. Great job once again. You should take some time to write a book, I love the insight you share.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ALR-bishop]

another Pepe

[ALR-bishop]

Also Pepe