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

[G1911]

Originally Posted by 4reals

Not sure if these have been mentioned previously but went through a stack of ‘55 Topps I rescued from a local seller and found two print variations.

2) Bob Purkey #118 can be found with and without a distinct blue dot next to his armpit. On ebay, this variation is pretty close to 60/40 with the blue dot variation having a slight edge.

On the Purkey, I don't think there is a no dot version. It looks like it is either this big bold blue dot, or a fainter greenish dot in the same location (attached). Anyone have a true 'no dot'?

[ALR-bishop]

I have the blue and green/yellow dot versions. No dotless

Wonder if card was originally printed with the blue defect and there was later intervention to mask it some. No way to know I guess

[ALR-bishop]

[savedfrommyspokes]

Recurring pink on right side of the 'NY" logo on Alou's cap......

[ALR-bishop]

Good one Larry

[savedfrommyspokes]

Thank you Al...nice McBride, Pizarro combo.

[savedfrommyspokes]

Here is apparently one of two versions of this card in which the stats in the 3B column are obscured....does anyone have a copy of the "other" version of this obscuration?

[Sliphorn]

Originally Posted by G1911

On the Purkey, I don't think there is a no dot version. It looks like it is either this big bold blue dot, or a fainter greenish dot in the same location (attached). Anyone have a true 'no dot'?

You are spot on as I did a cloud of my two and see a goldish dot that replaced the blue one. It is likely an attempt to get rid of the blue one.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by Sliphorn

You are spot on as I did a cloud of my two and see a goldish dot that replaced the blue one. It is likely an attempt to get rid of the blue one.

I just noticed on your blown up images that there is a second smaller spot of blue, on both your copies, by his armpit area. I will have to pull mine and look at others to see if this is consistent on all cards.

Seems odd they would not just cover up the spot with white ink, instead of the yellowish greenish goldish color. Can't really think of another good explanation for it than what you propose.

[steve B]

Originally Posted by G1911

I just noticed on your blown up images that there is a second smaller spot of blue, on both your copies, by his armpit area. I will have to pull mine and look at others to see if this is consistent on all cards.

Seems odd they would not just cover up the spot with white ink, instead of the yellowish greenish goldish color. Can't really think of another good explanation for it than what you propose.

Because the process doesn't use white ink.

If the defect is on both the blue plate and the yellow plate, that means it's from somewhere in the process of making the plates. And one that ended up on the mask for both colors.

If you redo the image to fix the blue mask, but not the yellow, the blue dot will go away, but you'll still have the yellow one. Which they may or may not have corrected since it's not as obvious, and the color separations were relatively expensive at the time.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by steve B

Because the process doesn't use white ink.

If the defect is on both the blue plate and the yellow plate, that means it's from somewhere in the process of making the plates. And one that ended up on the mask for both colors.

If you redo the image to fix the blue mask, but not the yellow, the blue dot will go away, but you'll still have the yellow one. Which they may or may not have corrected since it's not as obvious, and the color separations were relatively expensive at the time.

I don’t know squat about printing so perhaps I phrased it wrong or used incorrect terminology. If they were able to make white in every card in the set, why could they not have simply made this spot white instead of the yellowish color to correct the error? Making an area of the card white does not seem to be difficult, as they were able to do it in every card in the set.

[G1911]

Following up to #1929 with John's Nobis cards, looks like it comes in a second variation where only the white in his name is impacted, and the club name is correct.

I've found a roughly even number of both versions of the misprint.

[steve B]

Those Nobis cards are some of the more interesting printing problems I've seen.

[steve B]

Originally Posted by G1911

I don’t know squat about printing so perhaps I phrased it wrong or used incorrect terminology. If they were able to make white in every card in the set, why could they not have simply made this spot white instead of the yellowish color to correct the error? Making an area of the card white does not seem to be difficult, as they were able to do it in every card in the set.

Typically white is made by just not printing an area like the borders.

The way the printed areas are made in a brief step by step

Original art/photos created
Color separations done, photographing the original through a filter to produce blue, magenta, yellow and black halftones. (On some cards, there are non- halftone areas like borders.)
Those generate large negatives known as the mask.
That is used to expose the plate which gets developed.

On the press, the plate gets wet, then inked with oil based ink.
That transfers to the "mat" which is a rubber roller (sort of)
Then transfers to the paper.

Yellow is usually printed first, followed by ... I forget if blue or magenta is next, then finally black (And glosscoat if you're making it at all glossy.)

There may be days between colors on a really big job unless a multi color press is used or multiple presses.

If there's a big colored spot, the two fixes are either making a new mask without the spot.
Or stoning off the spot on one of the darker colors, if you notice it early enough.

Color separations cost a LOT at the time, I wasn't involved in the pricing, but I think the place I worked got a couple hundred even on a small job in 1980-81

Stoning off the spot in the blue plate would give a yellowish spot since yellow would already be there. And you'd probably have to do it for red too if it was there.
A spot caused by debris could be on all 4 colors, or just on one.