1970 Topps Variations?

[4reals]

As many know this year was notorious for miscuts. I was going through my Dodgers team set to upgrade to more centered examples and I noticed a few things. I would appreciate thoughts and feedback.

Many of the cards in this set have white and black lines that appear at the tops of the cards. Assuming these were cut lines I largely ignored them, until I noticed some players have miscut variations with both white and black cut lines like Joe Moeller.

After attaining them I also took notice of the back which appears to have card stock variations of cream and white. I am familiar with "tanning" which occurs when paper is exposed to light and air but this doesn't seem to fit that diagnosis. I went through the rest of my Dodgers and they're pretty close to 50/50 on each back.

Am I wrong or are these indeed examples of card stock variations?

[JollyElm]

This is not a scientific survey, but I whipped out my 1970 album and looked at the backs of all the pages and, sure enough, an occasional card with a blatantly white back showed up now and again. They were prominently in the lower numbers and then disappeared altogether until the 500-600's when a couple more of them reappeared.

In my set, at least, everything was cream colored except these aberrational white backs. For you specifically, Joe, I noticed a white back #5, Wes Parker, but now I hate you, because this exercise did nothing except make me realize how many more cards I need to upgrade in this set. Ugh!!

[brewing]

Just flipped through my set.
Every page has at least 1 card with white stock until card 173. Then it is about 1 card every other page until the mid 200s.
Then it's kind of sporadic, but white stock throughout.

I notice the yellow is a different shade on those too.

[steve B]

Yep, all those are real varieties. Both the cut lines and the stock. The same stock thing happens for 68 and 69 too.

And some cards have different cut lines for the same color. Like wide or narrow white line.

I believe the white backs are really on the same stiock, but have had a layer of white added for some reason. Maybe to brighten the backs? But it's odd they'd do it off and on for three years.

I've been slowly collecting them for a while. so I have four groups, centered white back, centered cream back, and both with lines or not. it makes sorting a new batch a nuisance.

Steve B

[4reals]

Thanks for looking guys.

So Steve, am I right to assume the entire set can be compiled in both backs? Based on the findings of the others it seems it isn't limited to one sheet or series.

[D.P.Johnson]

What about the front gray border? Some are very light gray and some are super dark. Are these considered variations also?

[ALR-bishop]

Within the hobby I think different folks have different definitions of what they think constitutes a variation. For my own purposes, I define a variation as a card that differs from it's counterparts because of some intentional change the manufacturer made to the card itself, or in the printing process involving the card.

Many cards contain unintentional print defects, some recurring, that cause the card to differ in some regards to it's counterparts . I personally refer to these as variants.

I would be the first to admit that in some cases it is impossible to determine after the fact if some recurring print defects just accidentally occurred on some print runs, or were discovered and intentionally changed.

I would also admit that no matter what definition of variation is adopted, there will be gray areas

Finally, no matter what definition anyone adopts, what really matters is hobby recognition via a catalog such as SCD or Becketts, or the Registry. Only then does a variant card become a must have for master set or player collectors, which in turn gives the card a premium value.

And, trying to predict what variants might some day make into master set lists can be a crap shoot, as exemplified by PSA adding the 61 Ron Fairly, with an errant green smudge of varying degrees in the baseball on the card back, to it's 61 master set list.

Persistence and or customer volume and status my be factors in what gets officially recognized these days as a "new" variation.

Either way, I find variants like those under discussion here fascinating, and I like to at least get examples of such differences for all my sets, and label them with notes in those sets. I had not noticed the back differences in the stock before, but the backs do differ some between yellowish and orangish as well. I was aware of the line issues that pop up in this set and the 68s and 69s, and have examples with each set

The internet, particularly ebay, and grading services have caused much closer scrutiny of cards, front and back in recent years. I tend to think that if you look long enough you might find some print variant of virtually any card

[4reals]

I agree print defects (anomalies) fall under a different category than true variations. Setting aside the cut lines portion of the topic and focusing on the card stock backs I would heavily lean towards calling them variations since the '52, '56, '59, and '60 sets all have accepted card stock back variations. The main difference would be (aside from 1970 being a dull year) that those others were limited to a certain range of card numbers or a certain series whereas 1970 appears to have the entire set in both variations.

Does anyone have any 1970 OPC's lying around? Maybe the white card stock was the same used for that release?

[onlyvintage62]

The real variations are the 1970 Phil Roof (shown as and Oakland A and the Danny Cater, also shown as an Oakland A).

Does any body have a picture of the Cater card as an A?

[4reals]

I think we all agree they're cut lines and hold no premium value, however, if there are two different miscut cards and one has a white cut line and another has a black cut line I would personally consider that a variation in my own collection.

[ALR-bishop]

I took the different colors to be Joe's point, as well as seemingly different color stock on some card backs. As for value, some long recognized hobby variations carry no premium because neither version is scarce