Why SP's and DP's?

perkdog

Why back in the late 40's and early 50's did card company's make certain cards SP's and DP's? Collecting cards were mainly for kids with no value attached to it so why the tough cards, ect..

digicat

Combination of stuff...

1) make folks buy more packs to complete sets.
2) card placement on sheets. If you've got 90 cards in a series, and a 110 card sheet, you get 20 DPs.
3) series issues. Kids scoop up the Series 1 stuff, and sales die die down through the year until the last series gets under-printed due to the lack of demand.

perkdog

Thanks!

julen23

dp involves serious flexibility, ambition and a willingness to be a "freak".


though never personally participating in such said events, i have seen it on video back in the 80s.

julen

perkdog

<< <i>dp involves serious flexibility, ambition and a willingness to be a "freak".


though never personally participating in such said events, i have seen it on video back in the 80s.

julen >>

basestealer

Topps used to print cards in series. The uncut sheet held 100 cards, but there may have been only 70-95 or so different cards printed on that sheet, and instead of letting that extra space go to waste, they would double print certain cards. Short printed cards are more difficult to illustrate and frankly not much remains of Topps' old printing methods. I would just venture a guess that short prints occured when an oddball set number (say 517) that was printed over the course of 6 runs, each run consisting of 100 cards each, many double printed, some triple printed, with some sheets going out with one player in particular position and other sheets of the same run going out with a different player in that same position--both players would be short printed. Higher series (sold later in the year) were almost always produced in lesser quantity than the first series, but they are not denoted as short prints, because they aren't short prints (Topps produced the intended quantity of that series). A short print would simply be any card in any series that is produced in lesser quantity than the other cards in that same series. If a run had 80 cards, some would be double printed, and if a run had 101 cards, at least 2 would have to be short printed.

perkdog

Thank You Basestealer

Estil

I thought Topps did 132 card sheets?

mikeschmidt

<< <i>I thought Topps did 132 card sheets? >>



They did -- but I'm not sure when that started. There are some super size 264 size sheets, too, and I know that Bowman had different sheet sizes.

But 132 has been the standard for the last 25 years, if not longer.

MorrellMan

There are more knowledgeable sheet people around than me, but I think in the early 60's, a standard sheet was 110 cards. As far as more recent stuff, going back to the 80's, Marc is correct on the 132 card sheets.

julen23

TP, alas we forget Annabelle Chong and all her efforts in this area!

julen
tgif

basestealer

The 132 card sheets started when Topps increased the size of their sets to (the then standard) 792 cards. It made for a perfect 6 sheet run. 1982 I believe.

MeteoriteGuy

Another reason for short print cards is to make a few of the cards in the set in a higher quality. Examples of this include 1993 Bowman Football with short prints with foil borders and 1996 Stadium Club Football with short prints with a "TSC Matrix" feature. By having these cards short print over other base cards in the set, it keeps the cost down a little for the company producing them.

Clear Skies,
Mark

Estil

<< <i>The 132 card sheets started when Topps increased the size of their sets to (the then standard) 792 cards. It made for a perfect 6 sheet run. 1982 I believe. >>



I'm pretty sure they go farther back, to either 1978 (when they started their four year run of 728 card sets, which required 66 DP's) or 1973, when they started a five year run of 660 card sets, which required five 132 card sheets.