Show...me...your print variations!

[frankhardy]

Does anyone know if the bottom two Ray Washburn cards (the excess yellow and the faded left border)....are they reoccurring?

Originally Posted by savedfrommyspokes

Here are the four different that I have: the first is the smaller corner slash (no arm band), second is the larger corner slash with arm band (tough to see in scan), my excess yellow copy, and the copy with some left border missing. I think ejstel is referring to the 2nd copy (with red circle).

[savedfrommyspokes]

I have only one copy of the card with the extra yellow, however, I have a second copy of the card with parts of the left border missing. While I have not seen another copy with the extra yellow, I would imagine that it is recurring to some extent.

[Cliff Bowman]

I mentioned this on the new variation site but it was probably confusing to most people reading it. I have shown these here before but I never mentioned the coolest part about them. The 1980 Topps cards of Ruppert Jones and Mike Vail can be found with a printing flaw where something partially blocked the final black ink print run. The 1980 Topps cards of Phil Niekro and Lee Mazzilli can also be found with the nearly identical print flaw. After some investigating I realized that Jones and Vail were the last two cards on the eighth horizontal row of the B* sheet and that the Niekro and Mazzilli cards were in the same exact spot on the D* sheet, the last two cards on the eighth horizontal row. That tells me that the blockage was on the printing press, so that when the full 264 card A* and B* sheet was put through the printing process a certain number of the sheets were printed with the flaw. At some point the 264 card A* and B* sheet was replaced by the 264 card C* and D* sheet with the blockage still on the printing press so that a certain number of that sheet were also printed with the same identical flaw. I have never been able to find any examples of the two cards in that spot on the F* sheet, the Yankees team card and the Indians team card, so I don't know if it also affected the 264 card E* and F* sheet.

[ALR-bishop]

Great detective work Cliff

[savedfrommyspokes]

Found this fairly limited recurring print anomaly along the bottom edge on the 63 LeMaster card. Seems that 2 of about 200 cards available (ebay, comc) have this print defect. Before Cliff can ask, yes, I looked at the card that borders along the bottom edge to see if the anomaly carried over onto that card (#69 Zipfel) and did not see anything conclusive (except for the one below with a mark that does not appear to match up).

[BradH]

I found this Ray Nitschke in a big lot of 1969 Topps football cards that I recently picked up. There are 6-7 Nitschke cards in the lot and when I first sorted through them I buzzed past this one, assuming some kid years ago had used a marker or paint on it.

Upon closer inspection, the blue coloring is IN the card, not ON it. Kinda cool and I'll add it to my growing collection of "print freaks," which has become a fun side interest for me.