1957 Topps 4th Series Double Prints?

[toppcat]

Originally Posted by metroac

I recently started to build a 1957 Topps set and I'm confused about the supposedly scarce 4th Series. I found a couple of online checklists that show 21 cards from that series as having been double printed. I've looked for photos of uncut sheets, and I've seen sheets of 55, 110 and 121 cards, which I think must have started out as 132 card sheets of 12 rows of 11 cards.

However, the only sheets I've seen are of the 1st Series, and they include Williams #1, Mantle #95, and the League Presidents #100. I haven't seen any 4th or 5th Series sheets. Although Topps designated the first four Series as containing 88 cards each, it's clear from photos of the 1st Series sheets that the printing sheets don't match up with the "series" as listed on the checklist cards.

Does anyone know whether the 21 cards in the tough 4th Series were really double printed? Were there really 22? Were the rows duplicated? Were they added as filler to the 5th Series (which only has 55 cards)?. 55 cards is 5 rows of 11, which dovetails with the 110 card, 10 row sheets, so the 5th Series could be printed twice on a sheet of 110. If Topps printed in 132 card sheets, the 5th Series might have two sets of 55 (that is, cards 353-407) plus 22 (two horizontal rows) 4th Series double prints?

Does anyone know? Any speculations?

Generally, I would not expect an 88 card series to have any DP's as they could print it three times across the 264 card press sheets (the 132 subject sheets are actually half-sheets). The press runs vs. the checklist cards often don't match up as Topps tended to "preview" some cards from the next series by truncating each checklist card then trued things up at the end.

I believe from 1957 to 1959 Topps was undecided each spring if they would issue a "high" series or not, although they always did.

[Cliff Bowman]

#266 Ken Kuhn is the 22nd DP, if those 22 cards are actually DP's.

[Kevvyg1026]

This series should be an 88 card print series, running from 265 to 352. There shouldn't be any SPs or DPs.

UCS 1957 Topps Mid Series_series_4.jpg

[Cliff Bowman]

I ran the numbers on some of these "DP's" on eBay and there is no evidence of them being DP's. Here are some current eBay quantities of the "DP" commons versus current eBay quantities of other commons in the series:

DP Kuhn - 59
DP O'Connell - 41
DP Bouchee - 77
DP Dittmer - 99
DP Bolger - 106
DP Esposito 98
DP Pilarcik - 99
DP Surkont - 105
DP Collins - 82
DP D Johnson - 72

Non DP commons in 4th Series

Dick Hall - 112
Fernandez 90
Harmon 81
Crimian 94
Klippstein - 71
Klaus 78
Lepcio - 103
Gail Harris 131
Jim Davis - 74
Collum - 90

I have no idea why those 22 cards in those two rows are considered DP's, there is zero evidence when they are compared to the other six rows in quantities.