1976 Uncut Sheets
 

Trying to do a rundown of the 1976 baseball printing sheets.

First, I have images of these 2 unique sheets with Bobby Mitchell and George Brett in the upper left:

Next I have this sheet with Bill Russell in the upper left...but wait - here's another image of a sheet with the same 132 cards but with the top 6 rows and bottom 6 rows switched. I didn't think there was any variation in row placement from one slit to the next once they stopped printing by series and/or hit the steady 132 unique cards per sheet phase.

Are there similar alternate versions out there of the Mitchell and Brett sheets?

And here is where it gets really odd - I would have assumed all the traded cards were printing across one full (264 card) sheet.

However, we have these below each featuring 6 unique roses of basic cards, and 2 rows of unique traded cards printed 3 times.

So, either 1) there is a sheet out there with all 12 of these unique card rows and one additional sheet with 132 missing unique cards, or 2) there are two sheets out there - each with the 6 rows from one of these traded sheets plus an additional 6 rows of cards not seen on any of these sheets.

Either way, there remain 132 cards not accounted for across all 6 of these sheets.

What to we think the answers are? Does someone have other sheet images? Is it possible any base cards were either short- or over-printed to account for the traded cards?

And I know it generally received hobby wisdom, but since the 1976 pre-dates my collecting by a couple years - want to confirm that the traded cards didn't make their appearance until later in the summer?

NO SP's I'm aware of (132x5 = 660)

Here are the ones your missing. In my notes I have the Rose in top left corner labeled as OPC, that is probably why there are two different layouts. Same with the Aaron in top left corner below. Last photo is a crappy copy of the 132 card sheet that was split up to make the Traded sheets (2). John

2nd attempt

OK - thanks. This clears it all up.

Using simple, low numbers -
Let's say they print the Torre, Russell, Brett and Mitchell sheets 15 times

Then they print the Briggs sheet 10 times

then each of the two Traded sheet variants 5 times.

Every card, including tradeds, would then have 15 printings.

Just add some zeroes to those and Badda bing, badda boom.

Now I can sleep tonight.

The actual sheets as they came off the presses were 264 cards, two sheets wide.
But..... 660/132 =5, so there was a spare sheet.

With the production levels, even in 76 they probably had to replace the sets of plates a few times.

So that spare sheet and the rest of the sheets could and would have varied.

What layouts were made is important, especially if we can figure out how to tell for example exactly which row a traded card came from. Or if a card was from the sheet where it was on the top half or bottom.

Most differences will be very subtle if they're even there.

Yes but I thought the full 264 card sheet was simply two identical 132 card sheets, so there would be no 'extra' sheet?

I am positive the Aaron sheet and the Torre sheet were printed together on a 264 card super sheet with the Aaron sheet on the left and the Torre sheet on the right. Both of them have a recurring print flaw with splattered blue ink on several of the cards in varying degrees and the affected cards on the right edge of the Aaron sheet match up with the affected cards on the left edge of the Torre sheet.

1976 sheets
 

In 1973, there are two different versions of the sheets. Some of the sheets used a 6x2 pattern (i.e., six different rows printed twice on one slit, while the other slit had the same 6x2, but with a different set of six rows) but then there was a slit that had 132 different cards on it.

Looking at the slit with Aaron/Mitchell, I see one slit has 132 different cards, but Aaron is at the top while the other slit has the same 132 cards, but with Aaron leading off row 7 instead. I see the same thing with the Rose sheet, i.e., one slit has Rose at top with Russell in row 7, but a 2nd slit has Russell at top and Rose in row 7.

So, I would hazard a guess that there is a slit with Brett in C1 of row 7.

According to jmoran19 the 76 sheet leading with Rose is OPC so I would think the sheet leading with Mitchell is also OPC.

For earlier sets sold as different series the sheets had different layouts.

I don't recall if the couple full sheets I saw were two identical side by side, or two different. They were different years than 73 though.

I recall seeing 2 1973 sheets identical other than the 6 row switcheroo as well, and now with the OPC explanation for 1976 I'm wondering if one of those 1973s was OPC as well.

I mean, what possible reason could there be for Topps to print the same 132 sheet in two different arrangements?

I am very confident that the sheet with Pete Rose in the upper left corner and the sheet with Hank Aaron in the upper left corner are Topps and the sheet with Bill Russell in the upper left corner and the sheet with Bobby Mitchell in the upper left corner are O-Pee-Chee (OPC). In trying to figure which ones are which I noticed that all 1976 Topps sheets have the dotted line along the bottom, the Bill Russell sheet and the Bobby Mitchell sheet do not have the dotted line along the bottom of the sheet. Also, all of the Topps sheets have a Checklist in the lower left corner other than the two updated sheets with the Traded cards.

I think you're right - I found this reverse image of a 1976 Topps sheet showing Aaron at the top - clearly the Topps variety. Also, I found a sheet with Mitchell on the top advertised as an OPC sheet.

It probably means the Rose on top is also the Topps - which means we now need a decent image of it because the curled one is the only one I've been able to find!