1967 Topps Mays ghost images in backgroung?
 

Anyone else seen anything like this? I have a '67 Topps Willie Mays, when held at an angle in the light, you can see writing and circles with some kind of image in them in the background on the front. The images and text cover the enter surface of the card. I can make out some of the writing looks like it says "9 funny pictures" and on another part is looks like the work "fold", then like I mentioned above, there are several circles with unrecognizable images in them and some angled lines, could be pairs of glasses. There is other writing, I just can't make it out. It is in varying fonts. I would post a pic, but I don't think it would show up in the scan. Reminds me of a water mark on a sheet of paper. The card came out of '66 and '67 partial sets that I bought from the original collector, who I think grew up somewhere in California. I have bought other cards from the guy in the past and this was the last of his stuff, so I have no reason that they are anything but what was pulled from packs by him and his brother in '67. My first thought was that maybe the sheet the card came from was printed on scrap of something else Topps had. They "ghost images" are not indented into the card at all, it is completely smooth to the touch. Any ideas would be helpful.

Title should read "background", sorry.

How about an image please to help you with your inquiry?

Here's the best I could do with a camera. Again, the images are not indented or raised to the touch, just looked like Mays was printed on top of something else. You can see this on the entire surface of the card. I don't know?

http://i1167.photobucket.com/albums/...ps89acfcdp.jpg

http://i1167.photobucket.com/albums/...psd4yrrje6.jpg

http://i1167.photobucket.com/albums/...psnm4a6jm3.jpg

http://i1167.photobucket.com/albums/...psblqognxn.jpg

Bump

This should probably badly be in the post was area .

Any maybe a few picks of the back just in case.

Fascinating, I believe it is 'COMIC BO' on the last photo, I'm sure it would say 'COMIC BOOK' if it wasn't cut off at the edge of the card.

It obviously has something to do with this 1966 issue.

Holy crap that’s cool! Amazing job cliff !! The old is definitely where it’s says refold.

Cool! Thanks for the info. Guess I should have psted this elsewhere, my mistake. Is there an easy way to do that without a lot of copying and pasting?

Thanks for the info and image!

1967s
 

Cliff, It seems to be a common occurrence in the second series cards. I cant show that well but these 2 cards have that same pattern and the Twins Team I have is almost complete with the picture you posted. I can clearly see where it says Fold make funny pictures across the card. I probably have 25 more cards with varying degrees of your picture. I had noticed that years ago just never thought much about it!:eek:

Maybe they used a comic book foldees plate to print the glosscoat?

That's incredibly strange. Especially a year later.

Now I have to look at my 67s to see if I have any.

Well, I heard that Willie's B.O. was nothing to laugh about!

I'm just saying. :cool:

Most likely the cards were offset printed. That means the images were put on a plate, the plate was inked and that ink then is transferred to a blanket. What you are seeing is the ghosting of the image from the blanket. In other words, the Mad Foldees were printed on the same press prior to this series being printed and that is the impression from the plate which remained on the blanket.

I have seen several hundred 1967 Topps Mays cards and that is a common occurrence.