1970 Topps - The Thin White Line

[Gr8Beldini]

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.

[G1911]

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.

[quitcrab]

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

[Bigdaddy]

Originally Posted by Gr8Beldini

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.

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

[deweyinthehall]

Originally Posted by Gr8Beldini

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.

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.

[darkhorse9]

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.

[toppcat]

Originally Posted by darkhorse9

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.

[lowpopper]

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

[steve B]

Those are lines between sections of a sheet.

they're on most cards with color borders.

And as you can see, they have differences.