A Series Of Fortunate Events

We're half a day early as I screwed up my scheduling of posts!

There's a really good thread going on over at Net54baseball.com about the 1963 Topps Baseball set and how the series stack up SP and DP-wise.  I won't immediately ruin for you, here's the linky dink.

While we are on the subject, here is a 4th series half sheet from '63, a thing of beauty:

It's a great set to study as the color scheme of the cards made it necessary to invert half of them to facilitate printing; the inset circles also are symbiotically tied to the main color at the bottom of the card as well.  This, coupled with the Topps practice of pushing the next series checklist onto the current sheets made for an interesting observation or five by the Original Poster, one Kevvyg1026.

Herewith the executive summary:

• The idea that the last (7th)  series started at #523 is incorrect

• The idea that there are short prints in the last series is also incorrect.

• The idea that short prints could occur in anything other than multiples off 11  is wrong (we already knew this here at the blog)

• For whatever reason, there is one subset of 11 cards that were "extra prints" in the 5th series. Other than the 1st series, which traditionally held 110 cards (109 plus an extra checklist) in this era, the rest of the series work out to either three impressions of each card over a full 264 card sheet (series of 87+1 extra checklist=88) or four (series of 65 + extra checklist=66) except for the 5th which has 77 (76+1) cards.  For some reason a row was double-printed in this series. Those 60's Topps 1st series runs usually had 22 extra card per half sheet, but the quantities were so high you can't tell the SP's from the DP's.

Here's the likely series breakdown (you would need the sheets to be 100% confident), kudos to Kevvyg1026 for figuring all of this out:

Series 1: 1-109 (110 cards incl. extra checklist)
Series 2: 110-196 (88 cards, ditto)
Series 3: 197-283 (88 cards, ditto)
Series 4: 284-370 (88 cards ditto)
Series 5: 371-446 (77 cards, ditto)
Series 6: 447-511 (66 cards, ditto)
Series 7: 512-576 (66 cards, ditto)

These won't actually match the series configurations on the printed checklists by the way:

Series 1: 1-88
Series 2: 89-176
Series 3: 177-264
Series 4: 265-352
Series 5: 353-429
Series 6: 430-506
Series 7: 507-576

Award Season

The 1972 baseball season was a strange one. It started off with the first ever player's strike (an event I have no memory of, despite being a 10 year old with great interest in the sport), saw a team move from DC to Arlington, Texas (the Rangers), resulted in Curt Flood winning his reserve clause lawsuit against Major League Baseball and ended with Charlie Finley's mustachioed Oakland A's taking the first of three straight World Series titles. And after it all ended, the American league decided to adopt the Designated Hitter rule.

It was also the year that Topps went public and, to my mind, the last year in their insane stretch of innovation and creativity that commenced in 1965.  Following the IPO Topps would become a different company, as the Shorin family ceded some control of the firm they had founded in 1938. This resulted in a tamping down of production costs beginning in 1973 and a corresponding slowdown in insert and supplemental sets, especially those that required licensing from the four major sports leagues.

Surely the result of a cost/benefit analysis, in 1972 Topps dropped inserts from their four main sports lines and produced no ancillary sets to speak of, although their Canadian licensee O-Pee-Chee did manage to repurpose some older designs into inserts.  Even their non sport offerings were mostly reissues of older offerings in '72 so it's clear the IPO had taken corporate attention away from production and design matters. But before that all happened, Topps managed to design, produce one of their greatest sets of baseball cards, the psychedelic 1972's.

Without the benefit of inserts, Topps had to get more creative than usual.  They upped the set count to a whopping 787, their largest to date and even for almost another decade into the future.  Printed in six runs, Topps finally utilized all of their 792 slots by eschewing double printing of player cards, although their extra printing of each checklist from the next series with the prior would continue, hence the five "open" slots to bring the count to 792.

In actuality, they had abandoned their prior practice of "lagging" each series on the corresponding press sheet to create seven series over only six sheets in 1971.  Their use of true double printed rows of cards on each press sheet enabled them to do this.  1970 was the last year with a 7th series and it may have become too much of a bother for them to keep doing this as they still had to get out seven series worth of packaging updates, promotional and sales materials, instead of only six.

In 1972, just like the year prior, the first press sheet, corresponding to series 1, would also include a 2nd series checklist. This practice was followed through the fifth press sheet, which contained the 6th series checklist along with the 5th. The sixth press sheet in 1972 does not have any checklists as no further series were to come. Topps did this to preview the next series and stimulate sales.  Sneaky, sneaky....and also the last year a true high number series was issued as 1973 used only five press sheets to issue all 660 cards, which were also released en masse is some areas. And if you don't have the full run, you know how tough and expensive the 1972 highs can be compared to the rest of the set.  If you collect football from this year, the high numbers are even more ridiculous.  Topps clearly was scaling back their last series cards in both sports in '72.

So with 781 numbers to fill out, or over 32 numbers per team, Topps had to really put some thought into their 1972 set.  We'll get back to them momentarily but the first thing they did was issue 72 "In Action" cards, which replicated players but utilized game action photos.

These were likely culled from the many unused action shots taken for the 1971 set, the first to feature on field play instead of posed player shots. The backs of the "In Action" cards had various graphics.  Some advertised what was coming:

As noted on the cards above, there were the usual league leader and playoff/World Series cards, which took another 21 slots but those Series 3 and 4 special  cards were only writeups on the backs of the "In Action" cards.  Ditto the puzzles in Series 5 & 6.  Then you have a team card and at least one rookie card for each franchise.  Still not enough?  Let's put 7 Traded cards in the high numbers (ever notice they only issued traded cards in even numbered years during their heyday?) and then the ballyhooed "Boyhood Photos of the Stars", 17 in number.

Well, six more slots must have needed filling because Topps included a half dozen of the strangest cards they ever issued, namely the "Awards" cards in the semi-high series.

 

As a kid I was fascinated by these award cards, although they were treated with disdain by pretty much everybody else at the time. Today, they are not too popular except in the graded card set registries.

I'm going to call it here-this is the last great baseball set Topps put out.

Who Ya Callin' Short?!

The earliest piece of true hobby research I ever pulled off was in the early 1980's, when I sussed out a black & white picture in an old hobby magazine of a 1967 Topps high number sheet.  I did this because the accompanying article mentioned it showed the Brooks Robinson card (at the time thought of as the ne plus ultra of all short prints) as a double print on the sheet.  Well, I thought to myself, that's odd, and then with the help of a magnifying glass and a team checklist book, pieced together all 132 cards on the sheet and then typed it all up (yes, on an ancient device called a typewriter) and tucked my schematic away.  I am glad I did that as I lost the original picture sometime later, although I have since found other examples of it, like so:

That is described as the "B" sheet, which means it was on the right side of the full 264 card sheet; the "A" sheet would have been to the left, although I think they were actually printed in a horizontal orientation.  Pay attention now, there will be a quiz at the end and you will have to use math! After years of relative stability in their printing patterns, Topps started mucking around with things in 1967 (Edit 5/29/19-looks like starting in 1965). Counting from 1961, the first year of expansion in baseball, their set lengths were 587, 598, 576, 587, 598, 598 again (1966), then 609, before dropping back to 598 in 1968, the final year before another MLB expansion would occur and set sizes would grow beyond anything ever seen before.

Topps also had consistently printed additional cards on each press sheet when compared to the checklist cards in this period, thereby giving the purchaser some cards from the next series plus the checklist card for the following series (in what was technically the prior series pack) and ensnaring their young consumers in a ceaseless march to the last series of the year where the extra cards and checklists would elegantly resolve.  But in 1967 they changed how they did this and also went over the 600 mark for some reason, which is not entirely clear and was not supported by their being more teams or players. The was also a distribution problem with the 1967 high numbers and many locales did not receive them, especially west of the Mississippi River. Add it all up and you have a recipe for scarcity.

Now, getting back to the uncut high number sheet.  While the above scan is truncated at top and bottom, if you count the descending rows and use DP for double print and SP for single print, you can label them as: DP1, DP2, DP3, DP4, DP5, DP1, SP1, SP2, DP2, DP3, DP4, DP5. The odd placement of the two SP rows has always caught my eye and led me to think something was afoot but eventually I forgot about this happenstance.

Well we have to jump ahead a few years, to when I found a list of 1967 high number DP's in The SCD/Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards. They had DP's where I had SP's.  I then checked one of the Beckett books and found their list did not mesh with mine either.  I e-mailed Beckett and got a response that their DP listings had been created by direct observation of a (possibly partial) uncut sheet.  The source of SCD's listing was never revealed to me but it seems now it was based upon tabulation data and not an uncut sheet.  It was clear though that Beckett had access to a sheet that was different than the one I had sketched out.  So I created a spreadsheet to show all the possibilities and came up with something quite interesting:

		SUBJECT	B SHEET	SCD	BECKETT
531		7TH SERIES CHECKLIST			DP
534		BAUER	SP	DP	DP
535		CLENDENON
536		CUBS ROOKIES (J. NIEKRO)
537		ESTRADA		DP	DP
538		MARTIN
539		EGAN	SP	DP	DP
540		CASH
541		GIBBON
542		A'S ROOKIES (MONDAY)	SP	DP	DP
543		SCHNEIDER
544		INDIANS TEAM
545		GRANT
546		WOODWARD
547		RED SOX ROOKIES	SP	DP	DP
548		GONZALEZ		DP	DP
549		SANFORD
550		PINSON		DP	DP
551		CAMILLI		DP	DP
552		SAVAGE	SP
553		YANKEES ROOKIES	SP
554		RODGERS	SP	DP	DP
555		CARDWELL
556		WEIS	SP	DP	DP
557		FERRARA
558		ORIOLES ROOKIES (BELANGER)	SP
559		TRACEWSKI		DP	DP
560		BUNNING
561		ALOMAR
562		BLASS	SP	DP	DP
563		ADCOCK	SP
564		ASTROS ROOKIES	SP	DP	DP
565		KRAUSSE
566		GEIGER		DP	DP
567		HAMILTON (YANKEES)
568		SULLIVAN	SP
569		A.L. ROOKIES (CAREW)		DP	DP
570		WILLS
571		SHERRY
572		DEMETER
573		WHITE SOX TEAM
574		BUCHEK
575		BOSWELL
576		N.L. ROOKIES
577		SHORT
578		BOCCABELLA
579		HENRY
580		COLAVITO
581		METS ROOKIES (SEAVER)	SP
582		OWENS		DP	DP
583		BARKER (YANKEES)
584		PIERSALL
585		BUNKER
586		JIMENEZ	SP
587		N.L. ROOKIES
588		KLIPPSTEIN	SP	DP	DP
589		RICKETTS		DP	DP
590		RICHERT
591		CLINE	SP
592		N.L. ROOKIES
593		WESTRUM
594		OSINSKI
595		ROJAS
596		CISCO	SP	DP	DP
597		ABERNATHY	SP
598		WHITE SOX ROOKIES
599		DULIBA		DP	DP
600		B. ROBINSON		SP
601		BRYAN	SP		DP
602		PIZARRO
603		A'S ROOKIES	SP
604		RED SOX TEAM
605		SHANNON
606		TAYLOR
607		STANLEY	SP
608		CUBS ROOKIES		DP	DP
609		JOHN

The 7th series checklist also appeared on the 6th series press sheet, so is more abundant in theory than any other 7th series card but we'll treat it as a true high for our exercise here today.  If you look at the data you will see that 11 cards identified as short prints have no corresponding DP designator from either SCD or Beckett.  Logically, these 11 cards are the true 1967 high number short prints and they are all from the row I call SP2:

552 Savage
553 Yankees Rookies
558 Orioles Rookies (Belanger)
563 Adcock
568 Sullivan
581 Mets Rookies (Seaver)
586 Jimenez
591 Cline
597 Abernathy
603 A's Rookies
607 Stanley

Conversely, 11 cards that are in my SP1 row are Double Prints on both the SCD and Beckett lists (I suspect #601 Bryan, a Yankee, was left off the SCD list inadvertently):

534 Bauer
539 Egan
542 A's Rookies (Monday)
547 Red Sox Rookies
554 Rodgers
556 Weis
562 Blass
564 Astros Rookies
588 Klippstein
596 Cisco
601 Bryan

Then there is the curious case of the 11 cards shown as DP's in the other two lists and also on my sheet:

537 Estrada
548 Gonzalez
550 Pinson
551 Camilli
559 Tracewski
566 Geiger
569 AL Rookies (Carew)
582 Owens
589 Ricketts
599 Duliba
608 Cubs Rookies

A nice, neat 11 cards and all appearing in the row I have dubbed DP1. The next three rows (DP2, DP3, DP4) are not designated by either price guide but I have them as DP's.  Beckett, if using a partial sheet, may not have caught these and SCD just doesn't mention them.  I have them all as DP rows in order to make the Beckett sheet work,

Did you notice all three of these "odd" rows (DP1, SP1, DP2) appear as a single grouping on my sheet? Let's replicate them at the top of a theoretical second sheet:

DP1
SP1
SP2

Still, what of Brooks Robinson?

SCD has him as an SP and the old thoughts on Brooks were based upon a vending box hoard's yield many years ago that was shy on Brooksie's.  If we presume his row (DP5 on my sheet) was not a DP row on the "Beckett" sheet, we can extrapolate the rest of the sheet:

DP2
DP3
DP4
DP5
SP1
DP1
DP2
DP3
DP4

Maybe not in that exact order and not ironclad until the second sheet turns up but the math works. This gives a final tally that you can check yourselves, of:

Rows DP1, DP2, DP3, DP4  = 4 appearances each over two sheets (16/24ths)
Row DP5 =  3 appearances over two sheets (3/24ths)
Row SP1 = 3 appearances over two sheets (3/24ths)
Row SP2 = 2 appearances over two sheets  (2/24ths)


My SP rows would not have been known by Beckett, so there are now 24 rows present and accounted for!  It may be disproven someday but right now I'm sticking with it.  As for the promised quiz-see if you can rearrange the theoretical second sheet to match what Beckett would have seen on a partial while still maintaining consistency with the list of SP's and DP's in the full 7th series list above and then have it prove out over 24 rows.

Burlaps We'll Meet Again

This may or may not be the kickoff of a look at how Topps seeded their checklists in the 1960's and early 70's, in a manner I refer to as the Theory of Checklist Relativity.  Click that backlink if you haven't been here for long to get a little more flavor if you like; there are three different ways this was done over the years (and wich I will not get into today).  The gist is that Topps would print the next series checklist with the prior series of cards, thereby previewing the next series.  This preview generally appeared at a ratio of 1:2 compared with the other, earlier checklist card on the sheet, which was almost always double or even triple printed.

The same checklist (well,almost - it was never a perfect replica) would also appear in its rightful place on the next series sheet, double printed and the next series checklist would then mingle in.  And so on and so on until the last series of the year.  Primarily associated with the annual baseball cards, this method was used at various times with other sports as well.  It also produced the "inevitable and much dreaded checklist card" in great quantities, to quote the Great American Flipping Trading and Bubble Gum Card Book.

Normally the checklists printed with two series would look alike, except for the occasional typo.  In 1968 though, Topps tinkered with the design of their baseball  cards after the first series was released, thereby creating two distinctly different 2nd Series checklist cards.  The first 109 cards in the set were part of series 1 (yes, the series should total 110 using the "Rule of 11", hold that thought) and had what can only be described as a coarser grain to the burlap looking substrate.  For reasons that must have been aesthetic (the first series cards are just ghastly looking) or print related (browns always seemed to cause trouble for Topps, see the 1962 baseball  cards for a prime example) , Topps switched to a finer grained burlap going forward, starting with the 2nd series.

The 2nd Series Checklist beautifully illustrates this point.  First series, coarse grain, first press sheet:

Now take a look at the same card but from the second press sheet (it is #107 if you are curious):

The Wheatena look is gone!  The missing 110th card is explained by the 1st series Checklist appearing not only in its own slot in a row with 10 other cards that world normally repeat at least once over the 264 full sheet but also in another slot unrelated to the other row.  Why Topps felt the need to do things this way is a mystery.

El Cuento de un Invierno

Last time out we covered the first two Venezuelan Topps sets, which probably lulled everybody down that way into thinking these sets would be annual events. Well, there was no 1961 set, perhaps due to the uncertainties associated with expansion or maybe just because no license was issued for that year. 1960's set must have sold better than the 59's merely based upon surviving examples so it remains a bit mysterious why '61 was skipped with sales ascendant.

The hiatus allowed for a bit of a retooling as well. 1962 saw the implementation of Spanish to the backs, thus making identification a lot easier. Once again 198 cards were issued but it seems they all came out at once and since they came from the first two American series' the the darker tone wood grain fronts of the second series also were on display in the Venezuelan set. As you would expect though, some particular twists were introduced.

Here is a series 1 card of a shell-shocked looking Don Larsen, with a first series Topps card following (the bottom border missed the scan on the latter):



The Venezuelan example lacks the "punch" of the US version but the lighter grain is more pronounced as a result.

The backs tell the story in two languages when compared side by side:



You can see the background color of the stats area is much pinker on the Venezuelan card. That little blob of paper is common on '62 Venezuelans by the way; it is from the wrapper and production problems during sealing led to the back card in each pack of four having some leftover residue come along for the ride. Fronts can also display this streak.

The cards from series 2 show the darker grained wood is much richer and deeper on the US version (right, or bottom depending upon your browser and screen):



The back from South America is also pinker in tone again (same order):



I think the pinker tones look much better than the muted salmon, don't you?

The last two cards of the "second" US series, 197 and 198 were not issued (Daryl Spencer and Johnny Keane got the heave-ho); instead two Venezuelan born players, Elio Chacon and Luis Aparicio were assigned numbers 199 and 200 and imported from the US 3rd series (Chacon was #256) and 4th series (Aparicio is #325 in the Topps set). Josh's Yahoogroup writeup for this set indicates cropping differences exist between the North and South American cards for these two players. But wait-there is more to the story.

1962 was the second year Topps included checklists in their sets as numbered cards. As a way of previewing their upcoming series (which did not match the checklists and was generally off by either 22 or 11 cards), Topps started putting a checklist from that series on the sheet with the prior series cards, essentially reducing 110 card series to 109 cards as printed and 88 card series to 87 on the sheets. Therefore, the second batch print run ended at #196 in 1962 but there were almost certainly two holes created when the extra checklist was pulled from each print run in Venezuela. Hence Chacon and Aparicio appeared in a neat solution to a mundane problem.

I realize I have to finish my series on the Theories of Checklist Relativity and the Series Previews soon ad they don't cover the post 1960 period!

1964 brought major changes to the Venezuelan set as a whopping 370 cards were issued. Using the same solution as in '62, the print series of 109+87+87+87 add to 370. If there is a likely year where one style was sold to cover two seasons, my guess is it would have occurred in 1964-65 but that's only idle speculation.

An album was introduced for the Venezuelan market in 1964 as well (once again, Josh has a scan) and this was when gluing of the cards, somewhat traditional in Central and South America, started in earnest. The card stock is pretty poor in '64, gloss is a distant memory and the card sizing can vary about 1/8" from the US cards sometimes. More cards probably resulted in a slight weakening of quality control.

Here are the comparative 1964 scans, fronts V to U, then backs:



There seems to be more orange in the Venezuelan color tones, frontwise.



The Spanish has disappeared but those black backs make it easy to identify a Venezuelan issue. Loco!

Another 370 card set came out in 1966, once again without Spanish backs. Organized and sold in similar fashion to the 64's, the gloss shortage has eased just ever-so-slightly but the off sized cuts remain. Thankfully, so does the excess orange in the mix as the backs make identification easy.

Fronts, then backs, South to North each time:





Josh has the intel on other differences, so go check out his Yahoogroup for more.

Next time we'll look at one of the best baseball sets ever issued in any hemisphere or country, the 1967 Venezuelan Topps set; a three-in-one killer of an issue. Estar allí o ser cuadrado!

Lag Time

I would be remiss if I did not take a peek at the 1960 Topps Baseball Checklists before diving into the expansion-era sets. The 1960 set was covered here over a year ago when the various flavors of card stock that were used in the set were examined in almost excruciating detail.

Well, there is not a whole lot more to the tale since 1960 was straightforward in execution, with seven series issued and a run of checklists on the backs of team cards that didn't match the series as printed. Here is the high number checklist from the back of the Red Sox Team:



Other than Walt Bond being hung out to dry and the inclusion of the All Star Selections, the only other thing about this card back is that is lags 11 behind in number when what was printed is compared to what is stated. I am finding that in 1959 and 1960, the series lagged either 11 or 22 cards behind what was printed. This was possible due to Topps printing a 110 card first series but only showing numbering to 88 on the 1st series checklist, evidenced by the reverse of the Dodgers Team:



The next three series would have 88 cards printed and the lag would be 22. Then a switch to 66 card series and the checklist would get jiggered for the fifth series and the lag would reduce to 11. Take a look at this Pirates Team:



By ending the 5th series at #429 when in actuality the fifth press run went to #440 (110+88+88+88+66=440) the lag reduced to 11. Things would change a bit for 1961 as Topps grappled with players on the move and two new teams just as they were getting into a groove.

Gray Area

As we journey into 1959, Topps was starting to standardize how they printed their baseball cards. 1958 saw a real slapdash final series (6th) and what I believe were four 110 subject printings made to look like five 88 card series prior. After their efforts to conclude that season's set, the Topps braintrust look have have really started planning out the best way to issue their cards.

I found a 66 card proof sheet on my hard drive that is the key to seeing how the 59's were printed:



You will note this block of cards spans 66 numbers, from #375 (Niemann) to #440 (Burdette). The checklists on the back of the team card in '59 would have us believe the 4th series ran from #353-429 and the 5th series from #430-495, so this group is smack dab in the middle. #495 was also the last number in the 1958 set, so I think that was an intentional move by Topps as they were going to expand the set by 77 cards for '59.

However, the high number series in 1959 was printed as a 66 card run:



identifiable by the black number block on the reverse, as well as the cream stock:



Compare this with the last card of the prior run, with a green number block and gray stock:



From #1-506 the blocks are green, as was the text; I think the black looks much better. I wonder if the ink color was changed when Topps started printing the 1959 football cards, which also have black ink and may have been a move to expedite printing of the omega and alpha series of each respective set.

The gray stock also helps us pin down the production cycle as cards 199-286 can be found with either type of stock. This once again point to a 110 subject press run to start the year, followed by an 88 subject second run to get to #198. 88 cards again through #286 and the another 88 gets us to #374. Since we know #375-440 is another run (totaling 66) then we have a 66 card gap to get us to the true high number run starting at #507. This gives us print runs as follows:

1st 110
2nd 88
3rd 88
4th 88 *
5th 66 *
6th 66 *
7th 66

I have a sneaking suspicion that Topps printed some combination of the 4th, 5th and 6th runs above together so have marked them with an asterisk but don't have the uncut sheets to prove it. They end up at at #440 though, through the "5th" run, which trues up in the real world as the previews would get get too far past the press runs otherwise. This is where they caught up in 1958 as well. I have to think a bit more about the implications of two 66 card semi-high series being printed separately.

The Checklists give us a fictional account:

1st #1-88
2nd #89-176
3rd #172-264
4th #265-352
5th #353-429
6th #430-495
7th #496-572

No matter how you look at it, the checklists on the back of the team cards showed series that only existed in the minds of the creators of the cards. Look at the 7th Series checklist to see:



Those black number blocks begin after 11 with the green blocks if you go by the official count. I do not believe those 11 cards from #496-506 were printed with the rest of the high numbers but if you are selling cards the kids are already buying those 11 before the last series comes out. Boy, I'l l bet they wanted to complete that run badly!

Here is a checklist card from the third printing (the card stock variation run):



And just for fun here is the 3rd Series checklist with an error with the two rightmost columns are transposed:



You get the idea. Topps was using the Theory of Checklist Relatvity once again but with a bit more forethought than in '58.