1973 Topps Coaches Variations

[deweyinthehall]

For your consideration -

I was going through my 1973 set, and my attendant collection of coach variation cards, and comparing them to the list here: https://baseballcardvariationsguideb...25/1973-topps/

We all define 'variation' in slightly different ways, but I think I've finally come to the conclusion that those cards with solely light box/dark box variants are products of something which likely impacted the entire printing sheet and so should not be considered variations unless you also count ALL the cards from the sheet as such.

Here is what I mean:
In series 1, Quilici, Lockman and Houk were obviously edited to cut out the natural backgrounds, creating a true variation of each. It seems pretty certain that Zimmer likewise was cropped, resulting in the Podres ear variation, so another true variation by any standard. Kasko is different - the image of Kasko himself appears brighter on the card with the brighter boxes and more shaded or darker on the card with the darker boxes. This leads me to believe that it is possible Kasko's card was not intentionally changed in any way and that, because one card isn't going to get inked differently than others on the same sheet, the lightness/darkness issue applies to all cards in the first series as well.

In series 2, Williams (natural background, Hoscheit's ear), Mathews (Burdette's ear) and Berra (Yost's brim, Walker's ear) present what I would consider 4 true variations. The Weaver and Fox light/dark variations can, like Kasko, be tied to perceptible color variations in the Fox and Weaver images (and hence the entire 2nd series of cards). On Fox, the light versions are said to have a variation where the shoulders of Amalfitano and McMahon are either visible or not, but I attribute this to the coloring issue (you can make out a bit of McMahon's shoulder on the supposed shoulderless version.

In Series 3, Tanner, Mauch, Anderson and Martin can, I think all be attributed to the same general coloring issue (interesting that only Mauch and Martin are listed in the linked document as having variations).

For Series 4, Virdon (Maz's ear) and Aspromonte (Spahn's ear) are two definite variants. Ozark and Schoendienst, to me, are again victims only of the general coloration fluctuations in the printing process.

In series 5, Crandall, Durocher, Herzog, Alston and McKeon all don't have any claimed variants, which tells me there was little if any of the coloration issues which impacted the first 4 series.

You can say that well, even if due to coloration issues they still appear different so they should be counted, but I would say these coloration issues would of necessity apply to all cards from the sheet (for example, if the Mauch card is considered a variation then all cards in the 4th series would have the same coloring differences and hence should also be considered to have variants). Even if the differences are more immediately recognizable in the backgrounds of the boxes on the coaches cards, it can't be said that only the coaches cards are variants.

So, my master set has been reduced and now only includes Zimmer, Quilici, Lockman, Houk, Williams (x2), Mathews, Berra, Aspromonte and Virdon.

And the Kaline with a boo-boo on his noggin.

Does any of this make any sense to anyone?

[johnlenhardt]

deweyinthehall
You make some good points here. I totally agree that "one card isn't going to get inked differently than others" and all coloration would be the same on the same sheet. In the past I have tried to purchase some of these cards on Ebay as they look different colors when viewing the item. However depending on how they were posted and what was used to take the pictures sometimes you just get the standard colored card, even when it appeared to be different. So I do not have any of these so called variations and was going to work on them last. I may consider just to remove then altogether or just add a note about the different shades. I focus on trying to get the ones that can be easiy identified such as boarder breaks and other misc variations like the Kaline.

[ALR-bishop]

Great post and observations Dewey. It was fun going back through my set using your post and Mike's illustrations.

At one time Lemke listed some 73 border breaks in the SCD Big Book but dropped them after realizing how common they were not only in 73 but in other years as well. It can be fun finding all the border breaks and double border breaks in 73 (Cliff helped me run down many of them). I mention this only because the Ozark card has a double border break version

The 73 set has a lot of interesting recurring print defects, but agree they would not fit many folk's definition of a "true" variation.

For those more familair with the printing process in 73 were there any double prints and if so did any involve the manager cards ?

[Rich Klein]

All series were 132 cards and IIRC the sheets are also 132 so i don't think there ever were double prints. Having said that, at times certain cards seem to be slightly more difficult to obtain but nothing ever was proven that there were no double/single prints.

[deweyinthehall]

Each series of 132 was printed in one of two ways - slits either had all 132 cards in 12 different rows, or a block of 6 rows printed one on top of each other. The illustrations here might help - https://mrpekrul.wixsite.com/narcissism/1973

We don't know what a true full sheet looked like, but it is reasonable to assume that the full 132 card slit was paired with an identical 132 card slit and that the other full sheet variety had the 6-over-6 on one side and the other 6-over-6 on the other.

If this is accurate than regardless of which version full sheet was used, each card was printed twice.

No short- or over-prints.

[ALR-bishop]

DP was a misnomer by me, meant was there more than one print set up for some cards. If so would that increase the odds for minor print differences like color or cropping in a card

[deweyinthehall]

Yes - that is what caused it I think. Each card was set up multiple different times.

This is the reason for all those often minor checklist variations from 1972 on back...the same card being set up and printed off multiple different sheets.

[ALR-bishop]

I collect these darn things in sets from 1951 to 2010. Still do sets but not these thngs

[toppcat]

Originally Posted by deweyinthehall

Yes - that is what caused it I think. Each card was set up multiple different times.

This is the reason for all those often minor checklist variations from 1972 on back...the same card being set up and printed off multiple different sheets.

This set up method makes sense for so many variations over the years. There's also the extra checklist from the next series also printed with the earlier series that adds an extra, third variant to many checklists.

Here is a good look at the 1973 sheets and the reasons why there are two types of arrays for all but the high number sheet: https://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=349917

I wonder if there's some kind of correlation between the 66/66 and 132 half sheets and the coaches backgrounds? If there are no variants in the fifth series and the "All 660" used "reprints" of the first four sheets in an array of 132 but never adapted the high number sheet from 66/66, it could make sense. I can't resolve any of the scans in the linked threads to any degree of clarity though.

[steve B]

Looking at the series 1 and 2 cards on the linked site.
To me it looks like the ones discounted are a matter of plain backgrounds being removed. A close up should show some degree of halftone on the dark ones and none on the others.

The ones where there are different colors for the "clean" backgrounds are less clear. Colors were often mixed by hand according to a recipe. Those could be sort of imprecise, so you'd get different colors for different batches. Especially if it was a different press operator.
Thos differences could be different runs, like one guy ran a batch, then a different guy ran a batch printed a month later.
It's probably impossible to know if there were different actual runs or sets of plates and what was done when or if it was just the guy on the next shift mixing the ink differently.

I would keep them if I got them, but probably not actively go looking for them.

[ALR-bishop]

If you do, getting them all will take you awhile