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

John1941 · #1 06-15-2025, 08:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spokering

I am relatively new to sports card collecting and this is my first post to the forum, so please forgive me for my lack of knowledge or posting etiquette. For obscure reasons, I became interested in Bobby Thomson's "Shot Heard Around the World" and putting together the Giant's boxscore from that game. While searching for 1951 Bowman NY Giants, I came across this Hank Sauer (I knew he was a Giant at some point but not in 1951) on Ebay. I quickly examined it and realized wrong team, but something caught my eye. I thought I was looking at a refractor. Closer examination reveals the printing defect which gives an interesting appearance of his bat. It seems the printing defect predominately affects the top half of the card although there seems to be something off throughout. I thought by sending it for grading to PSA, they might give me some clues to other similar defects. I did not know it at the time, but PSA has stopped providing modifiers such as PD and only gives a numeral score that incorporates the old modifiers which is why I think the card only scored a "4" (not important). It turns out of all the 257 Hank Sauer cards ever graded, only one received a modifier in the past (according to PSA customer support, they don't track the breakdown of modifers). I was hoping the group could give further thoughts about this particular printing defect. In my research, I could not find evidence of similar ones in the 1951 Bowman series. Thanks

Hi Mike,

Welcome.

What you have there is a card with print misregistration, which is considered to be neither a print defect nor a variation. Cards like that don't typically receive any premium but they can be kind of cool.

My guess is that the card received a 4 not because PSA applied any modifier to it but because lately grading companies have become very harsh in grading vintage.

bnorth · #2 06-16-2025, 08:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spokering

I am relatively new to sports card collecting and this is my first post to the forum, so please forgive me for my lack of knowledge or posting etiquette. For obscure reasons, I became interested in Bobby Thomson's "Shot Heard Around the World" and putting together the Giant's boxscore from that game. While searching for 1951 Bowman NY Giants, I came across this Hank Sauer (I knew he was a Giant at some point but not in 1951) on Ebay. I quickly examined it and realized wrong team, but something caught my eye. I thought I was looking at a refractor. Closer examination reveals the printing defect which gives an interesting appearance of his bat. It seems the printing defect predominately affects the top half of the card although there seems to be something off throughout. I thought by sending it for grading to PSA, they might give me some clues to other similar defects. I did not know it at the time, but PSA has stopped providing modifiers such as PD and only gives a numeral score that incorporates the old modifiers which is why I think the card only scored a "4" (not important). It turns out of all the 257 Hank Sauer cards ever graded, only one received a modifier in the past (according to PSA customer support, they don't track the breakdown of modifers). I was hoping the group could give further thoughts about this particular printing defect. In my research, I could not find evidence of similar ones in the 1951 Bowman series. Thanks

Quote:

Originally Posted by John1941

Hi Mike,

Welcome.

What you have there is a card with print misregistration, which is considered to be neither a print defect nor a variation. Cards like that don't typically receive any premium but they can be kind of cool.

My guess is that the card received a 4 not because PSA applied any modifier to it but because lately grading companies have become very harsh in grading vintage.

I agree with John with it being a print offset and not any kind of variation. The ones with a small offset like yours typically bring a little less money that a card with good print registration. Now if the print offset was off 3 times as much or more they do command a premium from us oddball collectors. The big print offset cards are among my favorite.

spokering · #3 06-17-2025, 03:40 PM

Thanks John and Ben for your insights. I didn't suspect it was worth a premium but thought the print defect/offset gave it a somewhat unique effect, especially how it impacted the bat.

butchie_t · #4 07-31-2025, 04:17 PM

I actually came across three 69 variation cards I thought I would never find. I am very happy to add these to my ever decreasing list of 69 variations. The Gosger, Shepard, and Quilici I do not believe have been added to this thread. Others listed, pretty sure they have.

Jim Gosger Blue Band on Bat
Larry Shepard Blue Streak
Frank Quilici Splotchy red band on back of card.

The other ones:

Gaylord Perry White Letter Wide number obscure on back
Gaylord Perry Yellow Letter Thin number obscure on back
Jimmie Hall Pink Top Right part of card
Ken Suarez Partial Last Name
And a couple of the Ray Washburn variations.

Cheers,

Butch

butchie_t · #5 07-31-2025, 04:26 PM

And now the 70's I recently came across too.

I have been looking for the 70 Checklist 4th series bottom 4 names smudges for quite some time and finally came across one.

The Expos team variation has a blob over the team name on the reverse.
Two of the ones I have are different blobs but still blobs.
The third one, I'm not exactly sure of it fitting the variation description I have: "Blob over team name and smudges on the card." So, I am taking a bit of a liberty thinking the red smudges are part of the variation. That is unless someone here can override that card with the actual one.

The Two Hegan Blue Sky's on right are slightly different variations of each other, so I got them both.

Chipping away at the 70 Topps Variations with these additions as well!!!

Cheers,

Butch

johnlenhardt · #6 08-01-2025, 03:23 AM

Great find Butch on the checklist, thats a new one for me

. I am guessing you are aware there is the brown and red bat versions?

butchie_t · #7 08-01-2025, 09:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnlenhardt

Great find Butch on the checklist, thats a new one for me

. I am guessing you are aware there is the brown and red bat versions?

Thanks John,

I am familiar with the bat variations as well.

Cheers,

Butch

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