I don't think you'll ever see any print runs on many cards unless it's new stuff that's numbered......I don't even know how you'd throw some number at the 1950's and 1960's Topps but I can assure you that if the number of dealers at the National with those cards is any indication, there were bazillions of 1950's/1960's Topps cards printed. Remember, they were effectively the only game for many of those years other than the Bowman run and the Fleer foray in the early 1960's. All the way up until 1981.
Newer Topps cards were printed on sheets of 132 cards....not sure about the larger 1952-1956 format. With 132 cards per sheet, you have 132,264,396,528,660,792,etc. Any time you had a different number than that in a set, you had either blank cards or Topps would duplicate a card in that blank spot to fill up a full 132 card sheet. Many of the 1970's sets had 660 cards in them. Earlier Topps sets were put out in series--like 5,6,7 series that typically had 66 or 132 cards in a series. In a 66 card series, you'd have two of each card on the sheet. In a 132 card series, one of each card on a sheet.
A lot of research has gone into price guides identifying which cards are double-prints and how many cards were printed within series, etc. Most of the work was done from finding full sheets of cards from those respective years and probably people looking through Topps or Gelman's archives out there.
|