1973 Topps Gaps in Border - PSA recognizes 3. How many more?

[swarmee]

Noticed in the board bulk submission Bobby put on, someone just got back a 1973 Topps card with "Gap in Border" variation. Looks like they have three as part of their recognized variations:
#20 Stan Bahnsen
#31 Buddy Bell
#504 Earl Williams

I know I've found one or two more and put them in the Show me your print variations thread, but figured it might be worth it to catalog it better in a separate thread. This should be for real gaps, not just white fisheye print defects over the border. I would expect that PSA would add these since they already have 3 in their set checklist of the same type.

#417 Scipio Spinks has both a top border gap variation, and one with a gap on all three sides.

Which ones do you know of?

[tribefan]

Buddy Bell

[Cliff Bowman]

Other than the Stan Bahnsen and the Buddy Bell which are side by side on a first series sheet, all of the other ones are on the two fourth series sheets. Each of the two sheets from the fourth series has eleven consecutive cards in a horizontal row with gaps in the border for a total of twenty two cards. One row is Auerbach, Kennedy, McAndrew, R. Morales, Pattin, McAnally, Giants team, Howarth, Spinks, Ozark, Reuschel. The other eleven cards are on a different fourth series sheet, Simpson, E. Williams, G. Brown, Tovar, Granger, Thompson, Fregosi, G. Perry, Marichal, Freehan, McDowell.

[Cliff Bowman]

Here are the eleven from the other fourth series sheet. ETA, found a scan that shows the eleven cards in a row along with the LaRoche, O. Brown, and Tatum also in a horizontal row consecutively.

[Cliff Bowman]

There are other related print flaws from those two 1973 fourth series sheets, Walter Johnson and Norm Cash are side by side on a sheet and are missing some of the black border, Ollie Brown is missing much of the black border in the lower left corner, Dan Frisella is missing some black border in the lower left corner, Ken Tatum and Dave LaRoche are missing some of their pitcher position player, and Gene Tenace is missing a small slice of the black border in the lower left corner. I believe PSA no longer recognizes any of these including the Bahnsen, Bell, and Williams, and I remember Bob Lemke said years ago that the SCD would no longer list them. I agree with that, these are in no way variations and are only print flaws. ETA, I didn't see Al's post before I posted this in which he already posted some of the same information.

[ALR-bishop]

I think PSA should not note them since they are too numerous and occur in many different sets. I thought the same when they recognized the 61 Fairly with a smudge of green in the baseball on the back, a defect that occurs in other 61 cards. But, having said that I do collect them

I admire the way Cliff runs down the relationships among recurring print defects by analyzing their positions on the sheets they came from. He has been extremely helpful to me in running down variants that I was unaware of due to my ad hoc approach to collecting them, that is I know one when when I see one

[johnlenhardt]

Awesome post............very informative and helps a lot as I attempt to put a master set together.

[ALR-bishop]

John---welcome, and good luck on the master set. But what would you consider a complete master set for 1973 ?

[ALR-bishop]

Like many variant collectors I had a lot of interaction with Bob Lemke about listings in the Standard Catalog. At one point he told me he thought listing the gap defects as variations was a mistake since they were showing up in so many sets, even the 52 set, and he came to view them as just recurring print defects. He was leaning toward removing some listings that did not meet the definition of a change intentionally made by the manufacturer. But the 3 you mention are still in the 2014 edition, which is the newest one I have. And for my part I collect any recurring differences

On Bahnsen the gap can be small or noticeably larger, and Bahnsen's uniform can be white or blueish

I have the following with gaps or border irregularities

Bahnsen 20
Bell 31
Schueler 169
Jenkins 180
Spinks 417, with as you note several versions
Walter Johnson 418
Phillies Coaches 486
Williams 504
Brown 526
Johnson 590

I do not currently have scans of these but can make them if needed

Never mind, just saw Cliff's posts :-)

[johnlenhardt]

Hi Al, is the Schueler 169 the standard gap or something else? I could not find example.

[ejstel]

The 1973 set (probably went through 20k cards over the years) is my favorite to collect outside if the 1969 set (rare white letters, super rare white letters (pirates rookies), reoccurring print variations, non-reoccurring variations and different pics....

The 1973 set is quietly right up there with variations...maybe because printing was split between individual series and all card release. Not sure...but to the earlier messages....some of the line breaks are more rare than others (not sure why). Many cards with print vars also in the set...and the Kaline; with a band-aid=classic once in an era type stuff!

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