Reconstructing the 1963 Topps 6th and 7th Series Sheets

[JollyElm]

Don't want to send your thread off on a tangent, but I'm wondering something. When the 1963 cards were in packs, were they all oriented the 'correct' way? It seems if Topps printed the cards that year with basically half of them upside down, would they have bothered expending the time and capital to make sure the cards were all aligned properly before putting them into packs??

Um...just did a search for unopened 1963 Topps packs, and answered my own question. The video I saw had the cards all over the place, right side up and upside down with no real consistency, so it was just as I imagined it would/should be. Cool.

[Cliff Bowman]

Originally Posted by JollyElm

Don't want to send your thread off on a tangent, but I'm wondering something. When the 1963 cards were in packs, were they all oriented the 'correct' way? It seems if Topps printed the cards that year with basically half of them upside down, would they have bothered expending the time and capital to make sure the cards were all aligned properly before putting them into packs??

Um...just did a search for unopened 1963 Topps packs, and answered my own question. The video I saw had the cards all over the place, right side up and upside down with no real consistency, so it was just as I imagined it would/should be. Cool.

Interesting, 1986 Topps baseball was printed the same way and I can't remember how they were in packs, but it's been 34 years. It's scary that 1986 is much closer to 1963 than it is to 2020.

[toppcat]

Originally Posted by Cliff Bowman

Interesting, 1986 Topps baseball was printed the same way and I can't remember how they were in packs, but it's been 34 years. It's scary that 1986 is much closer to 1963 than it is to 2020.

Funnily enough I don't remember either and I opened a ton that year.

[Kevvyg1026]

I'm not sure if this answers your question, but this cello pack has cards in both directions.1986_cello.jpg

[Cliff Bowman]

Originally Posted by Kevvyg1026

I'm not sure if this answers your question, but this cello pack has cards in both directions.Attachment 408441

I would think wax and cello packs and vending boxes were the same way, Topps would have to have had full time employees doing nothing else than manually going through hundreds of thousands of cards and making them all uniform. I don’t see that happening.

[G1911]

It didn’t only continue in 1986, it continues even today in many Topps Sets. Upside down cards remain a thing in some issues, especially those with different color borders or partial borders that are presumably still printed the same way they used to be (albeit with much better centering)

[Cliff Bowman]

Arguably four of the five most sought after 1963 Topps cards were contained in the 22 card blue block on the 7th series sheet, the Pete Rose rookie card, Roberto Clemente, the Willie Stargell rookie card, and the Rusty Staub rookie card. I have figured out who is on each side of the Pete Rose card, it's between Ron Moeller and Johnny Blanchard, but not who is opposite of it or where it is on the sheet. It is on the orange inset circle row. Clemente is the 2nd card on the red inset circle row, has Dick Hall to the left and is opposite of Hank Fischer, I don't know yet who is to the right of him. The Willie Stargell rookie card is the tenth card on the red inset circle row, has Mike de la Hoz to it's right, and is opposite of Don Mossi, I don't know who is to his left. The Rusty Staub rookie card is the 11th edge card on the orange inset circle row, has Hank Fischer to the left, and is opposite of Dick Hall. There is a wrong back Clemente on WorthPoint that has Don Mossi on the back, which works out perfectly into my layout of the sheet if the whole back sheet is upside down. There is a wrong back Pete Rose rookie on WorthPoint but unfortunately it doesn't have a back scan or tell who is on the back.