Question about 1982 Topps Baseball varieties

Ichiro51fan

The other day I was browsing through the population reports and noticed something strange on the '82 Topps Baseball set. There are several dozen cards showing up with "Blackless" versions. First, I thought it said Back-less... you know, like a blank back, but no... it definately says "bLackless". Can someone please tell me what this means exactly? Thanks!

BobS

Some of the 82's were printed without the black fake signature on them. Don't know why or how many.

82 reggie

82 blackless reggie

Barfvader

All info taken from the 2005 (last one I have) Standard Catalog Of Baseball Cards.

1982 Topps "Blackless"

Whether through faulty pre-production work or the simple fact that the black ink well may have run dry during the printing, exactly half of the 1982 Topps cards can be found in a "blackless" version. All cards on the set's A,B, and C press sheets can be found blackless while few, if any, of the D, E, or F cards are known to exhibit this variation. On regular player's cards the lack of the black printing is most obvious in the absence of the facsimile autograph on front. The thin black pinstripe around the player photo is also missing on those cards. On cards in which the position was supposed to be printed in black. it will be missing on these variations. All-Star cards affected by the error will be missing the player's name. It is estimated fewer than 100 of each "blackless" card was released. Originally cards from the A and B sheets were found in metro New York, while the C cards turned up most often in the Midwest.


Hope that helps a little.




Jeff

Ichiro51fan

Thanks for the info! The second link was especially helpful as the guy running the auction went into great detail describing the different variations in this set. Thanks again!

EchoCanyon

Yet another reason why I love these boards -- so much to know.

I can't wait to run home and look through about 300-400 1982's I have in the attic.
(And lucky for me, I live in the NY Metro area!)

metalmike

This post is just my opinion only. The blackless cards are a true variation. For the most part the cards appeal to team and player collectors. 1981/2 Fleer and Donruss were full of errors also. Myself I prefer to collect pre 1974 cards .

Ichiro51fan

Yeah, but I think this is more of a rarety thing than a variation vs. error issue. From what I've read, the Blackess variations are quite rare, especially the ones on the B & C sheets... probably 50 or less of each card in the latter 2 runs, and very tough to find in decent condition. Compare that to the availability of error cards from the 81 Fleer set. Not sure what those exact numbers are but I'd be willing to bet there are a lot more of those floating around out there.