1952 topps house gray/yellow

[toppcat]

1/23/15 SCD interview with Len Brown of Topps (1959 hire date). Take it with a grain of salt after almost 60 years but the two printer strategy is interesting in terms of white/gray stock, even if it's almost a decade later in terms of the discussion below. 1959-60 was probably the height of Topps card production to boot.

"Whitebacks and graybacks
I asked Brown about the whiteback and grayback variations in the 1960 set. He said that their principal printer was Lord Baltimore. However, Topps also used a second printer, Zabel Brothers of Philadelphia. The first series was printed and ready to go early in the season and was usually their best seller. Topps wanted to make sure their next few series were delivered on schedule, and they felt two printers would be timelier than just one. They didn’t want to get stuck again with those crummy, unsold high numbers – like the 1952 Topps high numbers from Berger’s debut year.

The Topps product development people (primarily Gelman) liked to have their printers use the good-looking, white-backed cardboard, but one printer couldn’t use the white board in their presses. Brown remembers art director Ben Solomon as being really dedicated to Topps and trying to save the company money whenever possible. The gray-backed cards were slightly cheaper to produce than the white-backed cards. Solomon would go with the graybacks, if he had a choice.

Consequently, there are print runs in the 1960 issue (as well as 1959) with either gray or white backs depending on which printer produced the cards. If you look at a master set of 1960 cards stacked in a box, you will have an idea of what went on. The first card numbers up to 110 are on white stock (the first printer). Cards 111-198 are on gray stock (the second printer). The next batch is on white stock followed by another batch on gray. Card numbers 375-440 are on both gray and white stock since both printers were needed to keep up with the shipments. Finally 441-572 are back on cheaper gray stock."