1955 Topps Baseball Sheet Positions

[coppercoins]

My undying quest to figure out the sheet arrangement for 1955 Topps baseball cards has brought me to this forum. I am nearly finished figuring out what all the cards were on the sheet sold at auction in 1993 for which there exists only one, heavily grainy image:



I have but ONE card to identify and I will have all the cards figured out in this image, and I am here seeking help.

1955 Topps baseball cards were arranged in sheets of 110 cards, with 11 columns of 10 cards per column. Numbering the columns from left to right seems to be the most logical way to go, so the card in question here is the 9th card in column 10, up and to the left of the far bottom right card (Ted Williams). Here is the block of nine cards from the corner of the sheet blown up for some hope for clarity. It's the card in the middle of this image:



I have taken the liberty of filling in the known cards in the pseudo sheet partial below, with the card in question left blank:



What we DO know about this card:

A. It's a low number card. Probably UNDER #91
B. The head is on the left side of the card.
C. The background color on the card is NOT yellow.
D. The name strip across the bottom of the card is NOT yellow.

Any help with this?

[coppercoins]

This is the same sheet - I have taken the liberty of straightening out the perspective of the sheet to be flat to the viewer. It might help just a little bit.

[jason.1969]

See if you think Jim Pendleton #15 could be it.

[jason.1969]

If not then I’d go with Frank House.

[coppercoins]

I ruled that one out because of the yellow name strip. The card in question has a dark name strip, and because of the amount of contrast there, I am thinking it could even be black.

But thanks for the attempt!!

[coppercoins]

Comparing the two right next to each other, the darker blobs just don't seem to match the darker areas of the House card...

[jason.1969]

If you have all but one figured out have you tried just crossing off the ones you have from the checklist? Or is it more complicated than that?

[coppercoins]

And if it might help even further, I have attached here my list of all the other cards on this sheet. Interesting that a few players appear at least three times on the sheet, including Ted Williams.

[coppercoins]

Originally Posted by jason.1969

If you have all but one figured out have you tried just crossing off the ones you have from the checklist? Or is it more complicated than that?

I actually think it could be more complicated than that. Between this sheet and the other much more clearly known first series sheet, I have been able to place every card through #109 EXCEPT all cards from #91 through #99. I believe those were placed on another sheet and printed during the second series.

The problem is with player appearance and frequency - the other sheet has SOME rhyme or reason to it, but this one has cards seemingly randomly placed for no apparent reason.

Tell the truth, the card in question looks almost identical to the card above it where I placed Spahn. It's just a teeny bit different and I don't think they would place two identical cards side by side on a sheet of 110 cards.

[jason.1969]

Hmm. It actually looks a lot like card above it. Could it just be another Spahn?

[coppercoins]

Unfortunately this was but one of two years where Topps made the 110 subject sheets, the other being 1956. Some of the mystery surrounds that, and some of the mystery surrounds the non-existent card numbers because of the exclusive signing issue they faced with some of the players and Bowman...like Mickey Mantle.

[coppercoins]

Also what I have for this sheet matches the position of cards for all the uncut partials I know of, and they match the player groupings for the few existing salesman panels.

The assumed sheet of Topps stamps covered many of the same players in the columns represented partially here, but the card in the questioned position was Dusty Rhodes in the stamps, and this is definitely NOT a Dusty Rhodes card. That group of cards is in the fourth column on my sheet layout.

[G1911]

Interesting there’s no 91-99. I believed them to be printed on the same sheet, all cards 1-110 comprising series 1. Cards in this range have the cream or white backs, a variation that ends at card 110, and is not present in the later series (2 of them, I think). I will check my set later this week for 91-99 in the white backs that only exist on this sheet run. I did not get to the level of confirming every single card with both backs, because it’s hard to tell from scans and I need them in hand, very casually putting it together both ways.


I had not seen this image before. This further suggests the 1955 Topps Footballs we’re probably a 110 card sheet instead of 100, and thus there are 20 1.5 prints if A/B were different, or 10 full DP’s if A/B were the same. The SP’s are almost certainly a fake hobby myth.

Thank you for posting.

[jmoran19]

images ive saved over the years, not sure if they help but here ya go, John

[coppercoins]

Originally Posted by jason.1969

Hmm. It actually looks a lot like card above it. Could it just be another Spahn?

I suppose it "could" be another Spahn card. Wehmeier is repeated in this same column (which is a bit of an oddity for Topps). Wehmeier fills the fourth and seventh spots in the same column.

[coppercoins]

Originally Posted by jmoran19

here ya go, John

Oddly that wood framed partial is a 5x5 represented almost exactly by the bottom left corner of this mystery "blurred" sheet, except for the fact that the bottom left card is clearly Ted Williams in the blurred image - the plot thickens...

[jmoran19]

On the full sheet i posted Spahn is in row 9 column 5 and 10. Is your missing card directly under neath him?

[coppercoins]

Originally Posted by jmoran19

On the full sheet i posted Spahn is in row 9 column 5 and 10. Is your missing card directly under neath him?

Correct - He is...on that sheet. I have that sheet designated as "sheet 1" for my purposes. This is "sheet 2" - a totally different arrangement of cards.

The sheet for which you have a color image is here:



The sheet I am trying to decipher is here:

[Cliff Bowman]

There is a miscut 1955 Topps Warren Spahn on eBay but unfortunately the card under it is Ferris Fain.

[coppercoins]

Through some cups of coffee and an open mind, I created this graphic that helped me reach a conclusion about the identity of two cards on the horrible image of the sheet in question. They are of cards 8 and 9 in column 10, the two cards inside the red square labeled "B"

There are only TWO cards under #110 that show pitchers in left hand stances that have darker than yellow backgrounds and darker than yellow name stripes. They are #9, Bob Miller, and #31, Warren Spahn.

With this information I created the following image showing known examples of the two aforementioned cards labeled "A" to the left, purposefully desaturated and blurred to assist in making them look a little closer to the cards in question.

The red square contains the two cards in question and is labeled "B"

The card to the right, labeled "C", is a known example of #9, Bob Miller, from the exact same sheet image (he is located for sure at Col. 4, Card 6.

ANYONE have any input on what they think my outcome here was and whether they agree with it?? Thank you!!!

[Cliff Bowman]

It is Warren Spahn repeated. There is a miscut 1955 Topps Warren Spahn on eBay with the stats of another card above it, as I was trying to figure who it is it finally dawned on me that it was the same stats as Spahn.

[coppercoins]

AWESOME!! THANKS!!!

I now have a definite bead on the ID of all the cards for two different low number sheets. Now a life-long journey into the high numbers...I may never get there, but I'm going somewhere!

SHEET #1 FINISHED



SHEET #2 FINISHED

[coppercoins]

Originally Posted by Cliff Bowman

It is Warren Spahn repeated. There is a miscut 1955 Topps Warren Spahn on eBay with the stats of another card above it, as I was trying to figure who it is it finally dawned on me that it was the same stats as Spahn.

...and just to think, that card had a Jackie Robinson just beneath it, and the two corner flanks on the right side were Aaron and T. Williams (along with the other Spahn card just above it). He was surrounded by baseball royalty!!

[king11]

This is really nice work - thanks so much for sharing!

(And, as additional confirmation of the Spahns, the most commonly found miscut of Spahn appears to be to the right of Pascual, but there are a couple out there where Spahn appears to be to the right of Allie. See attached photos.)

[G1911]

Thank you for posting this Copper, this is great stuff. I'm awfully surprised this is the layout, I thought it was a very simple 1-110 cards, the two half sheets matching, no SP's or DP's. Interesting they got janky with the numbers and held off a run of consecutive cards (1953 was at least random card #'s not being issued with a series).

Checking my stack of 1955's, I have Card 90 with a white back (a trademark of a series 1 card, the other series only have cream, which was on every card), and card 100 with a white back, but 91-99 are all cream only, no whites sure enough. I can cross these off my want list now.

[coppercoins]

Originally Posted by G1911

Thank you for posting this Copper, this is great stuff. I'm awfully surprised this is the layout, I thought it was a very simple 1-110 cards, the two half sheets matching, no SP's or DP's. Interesting they got janky with the numbers and held off a run of consecutive cards (1953 was at least random card #'s not being issued with a series).

Checking my stack of 1955's, I have Card 90 with a white back (a trademark of a series 1 card, the other series only have cream, which was on every card), and card 100 with a white back, but 91-99 are all cream only, no whites sure enough. I can cross these off my want list now.

An image of the back side one of the known sheet #1s is miscut across the top and shows the bottom of the stats on the upper sheet half, and they are exactly the same cards as the bottom row of the bottom sheet half. They were evidently actually printed 220 at a time. Given the sheet half at the top is also configuration #1, this tells me that there were two matching halves on each printed sheet of 220.

[coppercoins]

My dream begins to come to life!!!

I am going to digitally recreate the sheet I had to build from a very blurry old image. Of course what I build will be digital only and it won't be printable, so don't worry. I'm a graphic designer and know the laws.

Below is a partial of the upper-left corner of the image I am building of the mystery sheet that only has one known image to date.

Thank you guys!!

[G1911]

To get started on the presumed 2nd and 3rd series, I checked my set for miscuts and found none. But I did find a border defect shared by two cards in the same spot that probably were next to each other or next to some test strip on the edge of the sheet or similar. 192 Delsing and 168 Pillette

[toppcat]

Originally Posted by G1911

Thank you for posting this Copper, this is great stuff. I'm awfully surprised this is the layout, I thought it was a very simple 1-110 cards, the two half sheets matching, no SP's or DP's. Interesting they got janky with the numbers and held off a run of consecutive cards (1953 was at least random card #'s not being issued with a series).

Checking my stack of 1955's, I have Card 90 with a white back (a trademark of a series 1 card, the other series only have cream, which was on every card), and card 100 with a white back, but 91-99 are all cream only, no whites sure enough. I can cross these off my want list now.

I think some of the discrete numbering holes (not holdbacks of ranges of #'s) in 53 and 55 were due to uncertainty over Bowman exclusives. Not sure why 54 doesn't have the any holes but it was a very fluid situation in the courts and with the lawyers for awhile. As for holdbacks of # ranges, that seems more intentional. Topps must have needed at least four series of issue for 1954 (like the year prior) and three for 1955 with the small number of cards in those sets, especially '55 so some cardboard sorcery makes sense.

1955 seems like a right mess for sure, it must have been chaotic putting that one together.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by toppcat

I think some of the discrete numbering holes (not holdbacks of ranges of #'s) in 53 and 55 were due to uncertainty over Bowman exclusives. Not sure why 54 doesn't have the any holes but it was a very fluid situation in the courts and with the lawyers for awhile. As for holdbacks of # ranges, that seems more intentional. Topps must have needed at least four series of issue for 1954 (like the year prior) and three for 1955 with the small number of cards in those sets, especially '55 so some cardboard sorcery makes sense.

1955 seems like a right mess for sure, it must have been chaotic putting that one together.

This is how I always thought of it too; the hold backs were cards assigned to specific players that deals fell through on or jumped to Bowman. The discovery of some unused 1953 artwork being evidence this was the case, though I don't recall all the details.

I'm rethinking it now. 53 and 55 both appear to have hold backs in all (1953, EDIT: actually I think one of the series didn't...) or most (1955? Were there 2 or 3 series even?). Perhaps it was just the old trick of leaving a few numbers out to keep kids buying more gum. A missing range like this certainly lends credence to some intentional skip numbering to drive sales through dirty means. This certainly seems to be the case in 1955. I'll be looking for miscuts of 91-99 to see if any of them can be linked to other cards on the sheet.

A good reminder that right when I think I've solved a puzzle via deduction (series 1 is 1-110 because of the white backs, no SP's or DP's necessary on the 110 card sheet), it's not actually solved, just a guess that best fits the few parts of the puzzle available to me at a moment.

The traditional alignment of:
1-150
151-160
161-210 with 4 DP's in this range

is definitely wrong. Anyone have miscuts of 91-99 or 111-210 to share? I'll go hunting this week for scans outside my collection.


My 55 set is, sadly, missing Clemente as his price has taken off to a point I just find unreasonable for a high print run card. I'll probably break down at some point just to finish. Having fun piecing together a full set of white/cream backs and all the little recurring print defects too, 55-56 were just great designs I never get tired of. I got my first one almost 20 years ago, so it's been a slow, slow build among other projects. Any excuse to take it's box out of the safe and go through again is welcome

[G1911]

And as to the 1954's.... I've never made heads or tails at all out if it's series, aside from what seems the obvious that 1-50 must be a series (gray back run). Topps used 100 card half-sheets then, I believe, so this would suggest the full set twice on each side. From 51-250, I've never figured out what's up, but haven't gone to the miscuts yet to slowly try and piece together. Never seen a sheet of them or anything to cut the work down.

[coppercoins]

Ladies and Gentlemen...this phase of the project is complete. I now introduce you to the only (known) digital reproduction of the "lost" 1955 Topps Baseball Sheet #2 configuration as sold at auction in 1993 and not seen since. Original image I worked from, and the final graphic which any of you may use for whatever you like.

[G1911]

Would make a nice desktop background!

[biggsdaddycool]

Very nice! Thank you for your work on this!


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