1980-present variations

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by con40

Ben, I truly admire your zeal to discover as many modern "variations" as possible, but none of these cards are true variations in any sense whatsoever. These cards are the results of print quality issues. Presses in the day ran tens of thousands of sheets an hour. At that speed, any dirt, debris, ink density, registration problem, blanket damage, etc., would yield issues on hundreds, if not thousands of sheets before the pressmen could catch it and clean/fix the press issue. The affected sheets would not be thrown away and would continue on into packs. This would occur constantly throughout the press run.

Printing is far from a precise process and all kinds of issues occur on a press run consisting of millions of sheets.

You will keep discovering these anomalies for the rest of your life.

However, your 1988 Wade Boggs All Star is a true variation! It's actually two different cards. I suspect it was placed on the sheet twice, or was printed in two runs of separate printing plates.

How can I tell?

Look at the space between the bottom of the yellow frame and his name in cyan ink. The space is different on each card. Since yellow and cyan are solid CMYK inks, this is not a registration issue (the photo is crisp and it has yellow and cyan ink in it). The only way this could happen is a change in the yellow and cyan plates... or it was two separately stripped cards on the sheet.

I 100% understand they are just print errors and not separate printings(real variations). They keep the hobby cheap and interesting for me.

I can't speak about all the 88 Topps All Star Boggs cards but the 2 I pictured are not from separate plates. The card on the right has a slight yellow print offset. In hand it is very easy to see.

[con40]

Originally Posted by bnorth

I 100% understand they are just print errors and not separate printings(real variations). They keep the hobby cheap and interesting for me.

I can't speak about all the 88 Topps All Star Boggs cards but the 2 I pictured are not from separate plates. The card on the right has a slight yellow print offset. In hand it is very easy to see.

Way to go Ben. There's no rules to enjoying this hobby!

I took a close look at those 88 Boggs cards and you are correct. The yellow rides high on the left card creating a larger space at the bottom between his name than on the right. Also looks like the yellow is running in the lettering on All Star.

[bnorth]

Here is a color variation on the 1982 Topps #53 Greg Gross card. Card on the right is the normal card.

[bnorth]

All cards pictured are 1992 Topps blank back proofs.

[bnorth]

Here is another fairly common print error. 1984 All-Star Set Collectors Edition Wade Boggs #8. The bottom 1/3 of his name is missing on some cards.

[steve B]

Originally Posted by bnorth

I can't speak about all the 88 Topps All Star Boggs cards but the 2 I pictured are not from separate plates. The card on the right has a slight yellow print offset. In hand it is very easy to see.

That's what I thought at first. There is a registration issue, but using my incredibly scientific (Ok sort of half assed) method*, I compared the distance between the yellow and blue, and the difference is substantial. Enough that I think it's an actual difference.

*I compare the gap using the cursor on screen. In this case, the gap on the left card is just the size of the arrowhead part of the cursor. The same gap on the right is much larger.

[steve B]

Originally Posted by steve B

That's what I thought at first. There is a registration issue, but using my incredibly scientific (Ok sort of half assed) method*, I compared the distance between the yellow and blue, and the difference is substantial. Enough that I think it's an actual difference.

*I compare the gap using the cursor on screen. In this case, the gap on the left card is just the size of the arrowhead part of the cursor. The same gap on the right is much larger.

Flip that, the LEFT gap is larger. And still bigger than it should be.

Also, I'm way late, and probably already commented.....

Daughter #2 is demanding the computer, maybe she should get it....

[bigfanNY]

This is I think a real error card from the 2012 Topps set. When the set was issued someone found one of these and tried to get a hundred bucks for it. No one bought it and then a few more turned up and I bought 3 or 4 for $3-$5. They came from all over the US Ca, Al, CT so it was not like it was a regional thing. I kept them all because I know hor rare it is to have a real modern error card.

[ALR-bishop]

I think this one has been posted in here somewhere before, maybe in the long pre 80 thread. Neat card

[Deadman31]

Ive asked about this on various areas of internet for a long time. It appears to be a silver variation.

[Tripredacus]

Maybe that is just a silver version... but I wonder if it is also possible for there to have been bad batches of whatever they used to print that foil on there. Such as with 1993 Topps Gold parallels and the variations in shades of foil.

[Bigdaddy]

Originally Posted by Deadman31

Ive asked about this on various areas of internet for a long time. It appears to be a silver variation.

The error on that card belongs to whoever gave Jr. the bunt sign.