Topps Mayo factory fake printing plate?

MeteoriteGuy

Was scanning a few new 1/1's and could not get this Jacobs Mayo card to scan right. These cards are terrible to scan, they are general not gem mint,and anything on the card, the scanner or the printing plate, looks 10x worse in the scan then in person. So I am scanning one, an '08 Brandon Jacobs and cant get a good scan. I look at the card, and it looked a little light in color. I have 5-6 of these (backs) so I went and got another to compare it to.

The Jacobs is out of focus. Either this plate was not used to make the Jacobs cards, or they should all be a little blurry also. If the back of the Jacobs is not blurry, then this card is a fake, or Topps made more then one printing plate, and didnt make sure it used the used ones. Cost of making two plates is little over one and you would make more then one set on anything you would print a lot of.

I really don't know and I am not accusing Topps of anything, just speculating. Not sure how to fake one of these, not sure how that plate could have been used.

MeteoriteGuy

Hmmm...have another blurry one.

MeteoriteGuy

Any thoughts?

byronscott4ever

I've read elsewhere that no company still uses plates in the card manufacturing process, that they are just made as a parallel now. I'm not sure if that's entirely true though. As for the blurriness, I wonder if it just happened with certain ones. I don't think it makes sense to make such fancy fakes of these plates.

otwcards

Wouldn't any printing plate actually be reversed (or a negative). I would think that these should be mirror images and not read like the regular cards...

1989FleerBillRipkencollector

<< <i>Wouldn't any printing plate actually be reversed (or a negative). I would think that these should be mirror images and not read like the regular cards... >>



Some info I found. I think all/most of this was from this forum.

Basically all Chrome plates are reversed. Non Chrome = "normal".

Here's how I understand it.

The images that are "normal" have been that way since the early 60's (earliest Topps plate I've seen). The plates we use at work, ones used to make newspapers, Beckett magazine plates that are often offered for sale etc are all the "normal" way. The reversed ones are for Chrome.

"Regular" facing plates were used to make non Chrome cards using an offset process - which means the ink (a primary color) is applied via the plate to a rubber roller - which now would be the "reverse" of the plate - and that is applied to the cardboard - and thus will look like the plate. That's how offset printing is done.Offset printing has the advantage of consistent high quality image production.

Reversed Image/Chrome plates- That means that the plate came directly in contact with the sheet as opposed to offset where the image is transferred from the plate to a rubber pad and then to the sheet.4-colors are required for C (Cyan), M (Magenta), Y (Yellow), K (Black) printing. 1 plate is produced for each run a card makes through the press - 1x for each color.

In 1993 Flair had a 6 color printing process adding Orange and Green.

alifaxwa2

<< <i>

<< <i>Wouldn't any printing plate actually be reversed (or a negative). I would think that these should be mirror images and not read like the regular cards... >>



Some info I found. I think all/most of this was from this forum.

Basically all Chrome plates are reversed. Non Chrome = "normal".

Here's how I understand it.

The images that are "normal" have been that way since the early 60's (earliest Topps plate I've seen). The plates we use at work, ones used to make newspapers, Beckett magazine plates that are often offered for sale etc are all the "normal" way. The reversed ones are for Chrome.

"Regular" facing plates were used to make non Chrome cards using an offset process - which means the ink (a primary color) is applied via the plate to a rubber roller - which now would be the "reverse" of the plate - and that is applied to the cardboard - and thus will look like the plate. That's how offset printing is done.Offset printing has the advantage of consistent high quality image production.

Reversed Image/Chrome plates- That means that the plate came directly in contact with the sheet as opposed to offset where the image is transferred from the plate to a rubber pad and then to the sheet.4-colors are required for C (Cyan), M (Magenta), Y (Yellow), K (Black) printing. 1 plate is produced for each run a card makes through the press - 1x for each color.

In 1993 Flair had a 6 color printing process adding Orange and Green. >>


I have always wondered about that, thanks

vladguerrero

I wouldn't worry about it too much, this set is notorious for low quality plates, check this one out? Also, a lot of people think that one set of plates is used for a entire run of cards, for base cards it can be a dozen+. I'm no saying the companies insert more than one set into packs but this is why often the plates will show different wear patterns.