Advertsing panels / salesman samples

[nearmint]

Would it have been because of how the scratch off area is oriented on the reverse of the normal cards?

That would be my guess. The scratch-off material went to the bottom edge of the back of each card. By inverting every other row, Topps ensured that the material didn't creep onto the top of the next card if the cards were miscut top-to-bottom.



Topps used the same technique on 1969 sheets. The background color on first series 1969 Topps cards went all the way to the tops and sides of the cards. To allow for slight miscutting, Topps put all of the cards of the same color together on the sheet, and they inverted every other row. You can see that illustrated here.