One thing I've been puzzling over is which color Topps ran out of when they switched from Brown to Yellow. The obvious answer is they ran out of Brown! But I'm not so sure. We all know Topps was extremely cheap and tried to pinch pennies at ever turn. I would imagine Topps often purchased standard primary colors (that were probably the cheapest options in bulk) and mixed them together to get other colors they wanted for their cards.
In the case of the 1949 Topps Felt Backs, the other three backgrounds are primary colors: Red, Green, and Blue. Brown can be made by mixing a primary color with its complement. The only primary/complement color combo comprised of Red, Green, and Blue that makes both Brown and Yellow are Red and Green. My guess is that Topps ran low on Red ink and reduced the amount of Red in the mix, changing the background color from Brown to Yellow.
Any thoughts on this?
jeff
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