1970 Topps - The Thin White Line
 

Idle thought for a snowy MLK Day - in the 1970 set the small vertical white line or bar between the players name and position didn't exist in the first series and was only added for the second series and beyond where it was universal except in a few cases where the player's name was too long to fit it in, although there are inconsistencies with this.

So, 2 questions:

1) Are there any other Topps sets where an intentional, relatively prominent design change was made mid-set?
2) Any thoughts as to why Topps decided this was necessary?

Not sure if this is what your looking for…. In 1967 the first series doesn’t have a dot between name and position, and the other series have the dot.
In 1968 the burlap mesh pattern changes from series one (wide mesh pattern) to a tighter mesh in the other series.
The brown color of the tv changed on the 55 bowmans too.
Scott

1969 football, series two cards have white borders. Series 1 did not.

Consistent inconsistency!

Actually in 1955 Bowman, the lighter colors TV cards are not the first series. Miscuts showing dark brown and the light wood cards adjacent on a sheet are fairly common. The card numbers of dark wood cards showing a light wood adjacent are found fairly high in the numbering too. It looks like Bowman used a massive sheet in 55, or if the first 220 cards are not a series, they used extreme skip numbering for those series.

For whatever reason, they just used 2 designs in one series.


Also - 1962 Topps has some changes in the wood color between series, and the card number and baseball on back changes size.

Topps had white or black bios in 53 and in 52 red or black backs in the same series

Salesman sample has both sometimes:

How could I forget the '67s? I put a set together 15 years ago (and then sold it for about a quarter of what I could get for it today, but...). And I was thinking the 68 burlap differences (a set I'm working on now) were more of a printing adjustment than an intentional design change. Had no idea about the Bowmans.

That sample would seem to lend further credence that 1955 Bowman only has 2 series. Crandall is card 217. Cards into the last of the "low numbers" were sheet mates with the blonde-border cards in production, judging from miscuts. The 1954 Football's were at least 3 series, the 1955 Bowman footballs at least 2, but they seem to have done far more cards in a single series than they ever did at any other time here.

Probably not what you're looking for but the photo quality of 1972 Topps cards increased as the series progressed. First series were drab. Second series a little sharper but still blah. Fast forward to the brilliant but reddish hued semi high's, then climaxing with the brilliant colors of the high's.

The 1961-2 Fleer Baseball Greats set is another like this; the first series cards are rather dull in color, the 2nd series very bright and vibrant on almost all examples.

Wow. I stand corrected on the 55 bowmans. Nice info

I've always thought that the '72 high numbers looked different than the low series. Not just the photos, but the borders also.

Absolutely! I attribute this to the printing process and not a design change per se, but whatever it is the difference is stark and fantastic. Those high numbers are beautiful.

I think you can see some similar differences, though not nearly as pronounced, in some other high number series - my untrained eye thinks it sees some slight increased sharpness in the 71, 67 and 66 highs.

Not baseball, but the 1969 Topps Football set added a white border around the photos in the second series after the full bleed first series.

I was under the same impression for a long time but I was advised the first series borders were the same color as the backgrounds and that does seem to be the case. It kinda ruins the set for me with the second series not following the first on the border colors.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/31206218509...4AAOSwISRaeq-U

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/MA4AA...-U/s-l1600.jpg

Those are lines between sections of a sheet.

they're on most cards with color borders.

And as you can see, they have differences.