1987T Plesac print anomaly?

[gonzo]

Recently I was looking through a box of cards I collected back in the 1980s, and I found these 2 1987 Topps Dan Plesac cards. 35 years ago, I pulled these cards from packs as-is.

At the time, I noticed that one Plesac looked like he had a rash on his neck, while the other didn't. I just assumed it was a Topps airbrush job on some unsightly heat rash, but I didn't think more of it. I put them next to each other in the box and pretty much forgot about them until ran across them this week.

I tried a couple of Google searches and I didn't see anything similar.
Have any of the 1987 Topps collectors here seen this before?
Does it look like an airbrush job? A printing ink oops? Or something else?

[jacksoncoupage]

Interesting. Plesac's card has a known variation already, which affects his neck. There is a large zit on it which was airbrushed over for the corrected version. It seems coincidental that this blotch also affects his neck area.

[rgpete]

I found almost a similar thing with the 1996 Upper Deck Griffey Jr, with a spot on his right leg like he got spiked, and the TM in the upper left corner is touching the gold foil. I also did search on google and Ebay and did not find another card like this. I had posted this before in print variations and I don't mean to intrude on your thread

[swarmee]

Are you sure it was printed; could be wax or gum stain.

[rgpete]

Originally Posted by swarmee

Are you sure it was printed; could be wax or gum stain.

If you meant Griffey No stain on card

[swarmee]

Originally Posted by rgpete

If you meant Griffey No stain on card

I meant the Plesac.

[gonzo]

It's not a gum or wax stain. When I touch the card, those spots don't feel any different than the rest of the surface of the card. The card didn't get wet in my possession either. It went in a penny sleeve right away because of the odd look.

I attached some higher-resolution scans.
Those spots look more smeary (for lack of a better term) than the rest of the print dots.

The last scan shows a blue dot behind Plesac's neck that has a similar look to the "rash". It's not there on the other Plesac.

Maybe the card had a few tiny dots of water on it as it was printed, smearing out the ink dots?
That's my guess right now after looking at the better scans.
But if anyone runs across another one like this, I'd love to see it.

[ALR-bishop]

Interesting card Michael