1957 Topps Blank Backs?
 

I picked up a nice collection of vintage football cards ranging from 1954 - 1960. There are quite a few cards from 1957 Topps in EX shape on average. However, I came across a few cards from that set that appear to be hand cut and the backs are blank. Does anyone know what these are? I looked around and couldn't find any information on them. Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Could be Topps prototypes or someone's first attempt at forgery. Or maybe scraps from a damaged sheet?

jeff

More than likely from a sheet that did not get printed on the back and someone cut it up. I know next to nothing about football but it is fairly common in baseball cards.

They could be prototypes but highly unlikely.

Exactly. What I was calling "scraps" but maybe that's the wrong word. Very common in baseball.

jeff

Thanks for the responses so far. I'll try to post pictures over the weekend to see if this will help figure this out.

I have posted some pictures of the fronts and backs. I found four cards so far, but I still have more cards to sort through. These four clearly all came from the same "sheet" as they fit together like a puzzle. The strange part about this is that the outside edges seems to be perfectly cut (i.e. not hand cut) so it looks like it came from some type of advertising panel instead of an uncut sheet that was scrapped.

The only other thing I could tell you about these cards is that they came from the original collector who is now 70 years old. All the other '57's I've come across are completely normal - these four cards are the only ones that are different.

Any other insight you could provide would be greatly appreciated.

To me the Pat Summerall doesn't look like it fits in the spot you've put it. While the cut is similar, nobody with a pair of scissors cutting "straight" is going to make the kind of cuts you see there.

I suspect that card if from the other side of an uncut sheet.

Regardless, very cool stuff! Thanks for posting these.

jeff

They're scraps: hand cut from a sheet that was discarded for some reason. Could be appealing to collectors of printing mistakes and the like.

1957 Topps Blank Backs?
 

Here's something similar (1959), but not hand cut. Came from the Dreier CFL collection. I believe these were prototypes. Unfortunately, PSA wouldn't designated them. Possibly, slipped through the production process, but maybe an earlier test run before they decided to print the backs, who knows? Brian from BMW said he's seen a few others.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8...FJnVTBQQ0dVcnM ;

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8...FFzU19lYUZPYU0




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Thank you for the additional information. Does anyone have info on a what an uncut sheet from this set looks like? I am still intrigued about the way these fit together as they form what appears to be a full, six card sheet. I agree that the Summerall doesn't look like it fits from my picture, but I'm fairly confident it is part of the six when I'm looking at it in person. I didn't position it well when I took the picture. It would be interesting to see if these six cards are in the right position on a full, uncut sheet.

I found yet another "piece of the puzzle" as I was going through the collection. The Bill Sherman card fits perfectly in the bottom/right of the panel. As with the other cards, the middle part is clearly hand cut, but the outside edges are very smooth. It really does seem these cards are from a six card sheet. I posted a new picture of the cards in the original post so everyone can see. The backs are blank.

I'm not convinced these are from a scrapped sheet as I've never heard of a six card sheet. I'm still curious if anyone has any pictures of a '57 Topps uncut sheet to see if these six cards are in the proper position on the sheet.

Any additional comments or feedback are welcome. Thanks again for everyone's comments so far!

Check out Mike Thomas's excellent site. He has been piecing together sheet images for years:

http://www.footballcardgallery.com/u...et/1957_Topps/

jeff