1957 Topps 4th Series Double Prints?

[Kevvyg1026]

In addition to the series 1 uncut material, I have seen a series 2 almost complete slit, a six card panel from series 3, but unfortunately, nothing from series 5.

[metroac]

Thanks for sharing the photos of the 4th Series sheets. I suspected that their had to be a 22nd "double print," and the photos nail it down. That said, I agree that there is little likelihood that these are double prints at all. I notice that the Standard Catalog of Vintage Baseball Cards doesn't list any of the cards as having been double printed.

[toppcat]

Some early information on DP's and SP's were derived from "tabulation data" methods, which was literally opening up a vending box and seeing what patterns emerged, which was often skewed as Topps distribution was horrible. Other data was determined when only the 132 card half sheets were known, i.e. before the 264 full press sheets had been identified in the hobby.

Between eBay and PSA pop counts (to a degree) DP's and SP's are pretty much established these days from the 1957-72 sets issued in series.

[Cliff Bowman]

Originally Posted by toppcat

Other data was determined when only the 132 card half sheets were known, i.e. before the 264 full press sheets had been identified in the hobby.

You nailed it on why those two rows were believed to be DP's for years. I was looking at the partial slit that Kevin posted last night and it occured to me where the belief that those two rows are DP's came from. When these 1957 sheets were introduced into the hobby in the late 90's I imagine very few collectors knew that Topps made 264 card super sheets that were two 132 card slits for each series from the mid 50's to the early 70's. The partial slit Kevin posted has those two rows printed twice so it was assumed that they must be double printed. They didn't realize that there were two more rows also printed twice on that slit and that there was an equal number of sheets that had the other four rows printed twice on it. The first slit is missing the Goodman row and the Klaus row at the top and the second slit is missing the Phillips row, Miksis row, Senators Team row, and Harris row at the top.

[toppcat]

A little known fact is that the uncut 1957 sheets featured in the contemporary SCD articles when they were found, were "reconstructed" for the images used in the article. A lot had damage, like my panel from the find, so Krause manipulated images to show intact sheets. The makeup was correct in terms of the arrays but the larger sheets imaged were essentially fantasy pieces. I'll attach some of the SCD pieces in the next message.

Here is an old e-mail I got from Solomon Cramer (when he ran those great auctions of his) detailing this:

[toppcat]

1957 Topps find per SCD.

[metroac]

A small section of a Second Series sheet, but it's got big Klu.

[Kevvyg1026]

here are some series 3 uncut materials I found

1957_series_3_panmel_2.jpg

1957_series_3.jpg