1975 Topps Mini Question re: Mike Schmidt

Bosox1976

I have seen this card cut much shorter than usual in quite a few sets; is this a known phenomenon? I have two "shorties" and noticed this third:



Link to ebay - Schmidt shorty

Wondo

Many 75 minis are irregularly sized. I broke a huge lot of them a few years ago, all crisp and original. The sizes varied quite a bit.

fiveniner

I sent 6 (All Star cards) 75 minis to PSA.All 6 appeared nice enough for the very minimum a PSA 8 however three of them came back as miscut non holdered.I seen no evidence of them being miscut either undercut or overcut.No evidence of another card appearing eirher on the front or back of any of the rjected ones.They were quite simalar except for centering to the 3 I had graded.Seaver PSA9 dead centered,Mantle/Wills PSA 8 and Munson PSA 8 Actually I thought this one looked better than the Seaver.Now I have over 100 minis
that are absolutely stunning but I am not sure If I will send them to PSA as I had planned becaause of the experience I had with the original 6 or just start building a raw set around these.

Toad

It's not just the Schmidt card, it's common among any of the green and yellow cards as well as the red on top, yellow on bottom cards. Many of them seem to show up short. The ones that aren't short often have a yellow line along the top edge. I just got a PSA 8 out of a Schmidt that I submitted with a rather thick yellow line up at the top. It looks borderline 7, but I'll take the 8.

SDSportsFan

I opened a ton of '75 mini rack packs back in '75 and that is definitely a common occurence with the cards in general.


Steve

Bosox1976

Interesting stuff all. Welcome to the boards Toad (and thanks for the enlightenment)!

mikeschmidt

I've got a Schmidt with a blue line at the top, too.

Toad - if you are interested in selling that PSA 8, please let me know.
Cheers

MiniMaster

As others have indicated the "short cut card" is a common phenomenon with the Mini's. Quality Control does not appear to have been a high priorty for Topps regarding the Mini's. Perhaps because it was a test issue distributed in CA & MI only (at the time of it's initial release) Topps figured there was less need for perfection? Whatever the reason may be, the sizes of most Mini's are relatively consistant with the occasional short card or taller cards. I've opened packs that have a single card about an 1/8" or so taller than the rest. The green/yellow or red/yellow (most commonly) other color combo's are less common but I've seen these (rarely) as well. These are just a few of the many reasons the 75 Topps Mini is so difficult to put together in PSA 9 or better. After well over 26,000 of these 75 Topps Mini's have been graded by PSA there are still 7 cards that have never graded higher than PSA 8. #75 Ted Simmons, #173 Steve Rogers, #251 Fran Healy, #564 Tommy Davis, #583 Andy Etchebarren, #626 Larry Haney, and #647 Claudell Washington.

Toad

I emailed you, mschoenen.