Nearmint's Vintage Football Card Blog » uncut sheet

A Little Off the Top(ps)

nearmint — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 01:11:21 +0000

If you collect 1959 Topps football cards, you probably have seen cards with a dark mark on the bottom. You probably also have figured out that the dark mark is from the card below on the uncut sheet. Topps got a little artsy in 1959 and let the images of the players extend into the top border. Consequently, the cards don’t have to be too far off-center to have gotten a bit of the card below.

Shown here is an example, a Bart Starr card that is shifted far enough upward that it shows a bit of another player’s scalp. The other player in this case happens to be Ernie Stautner. In turn, the football in Starr’s hand extended into the top border, and most of the ball ended up on the bottom of someone else’s card.

So what, you ask? Well, I am piecing together a virtual uncut sheet of first series 1959 Topps cards, and clues from off-center cards are helping me piece the sheet together. You can see the modest beginnings of a first series sheet on my Virtual Uncut Sheets in Progress page. You can help: if you find another 1959 Topps first series card that shows a bit of a neighboring card, send me a picture of it.

What about the second series 1959 Topps sheet? Well, that one was easy, because I found a picture of a real one. You can see the virtual version in the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

New in the Gallery: A Virtual Uncut Sheet of 1964 Philadelphia Football Cards

nearmint — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 16:50:17 +0000

Yesterday I added a virtual uncut sheet of 1964 Philadelphia football cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. I modeled the virtual sheet after a real one that is for sale in an upcoming auction. Thanks to Steve of the thecowboysguide.com for pointing out the auction.

Whereas 1965, 1966, and 1967 Philadelphia sheets appear to have had the same card numbering scheme, the 1964 Philadelphia sheet is numbered differently. On the 1964 sheet, groups of five to ten teammates appear on consecutive cards in the same row. I suspect that this caused a lot of teammates to appear together in packs, and that’s why Philadelphia changed their numbering scheme in 1965 to one that appeared more random.

(Click on the image to see the full virtual sheet.)

The Other Half-Sheets

nearmint — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 15:24:50 +0000

As I have said in previous posts, I have concluded that uncut 1965, 1966, and 1967 Philadelphia football card sheets all had the same card numbering scheme. Thus, from a picture of a 1966 Philadelphia half-sheet, I was able to assemble virtual half-sheets of 1965, 1966, and 1967 Philadelphia cards. Of course, I would also like to assemble the second half-sheet for each set, but I haven’t yet seen an example of a real one. So I started collecting badly miscut cards from the three sets, in hopes of piecing together the second half-sheet. For example, by looking at the miscut Ernie Green card shown here, I can tell that the card to its left was Ben McGee, and I can conclude that cards 154 and 41 were adjacent on the sheets for all three Philadelphia sets.

The cards I have so far are toward the bottom of my Uncut Sheets in Progress page. If you have any badly miscut cards that could help the cause, please send me some scans!

New in the Gallery: A 1965 Philadelphia Virtual Uncut Sheet

nearmint — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 14:29:25 +0000

Yesterday I added a virtual uncut sheet of 1965 Philadelphia football cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. I have not seen an actual 1965 Philadelphia uncut sheet, but by looking at badly miscut cards, I have concluded that 1965, 1966, and 1967 Philadelphia sheets all had the same numbering scheme. I have seen a picture of a 1966 sheet, and I used it to construct the 1965 virtual sheet.

Each of the 1964-1967 Philadelphia sets contains 66 double prints, though I have not seen the double prints documented in any of the price guides. The 1965 Philadelphia virtual sheet shows which cards are double prints.

(Click on the image to see the full virtual sheet.)

New in the Gallery: A Virtual Uncut Sheet of 1967 Philadelphia Football Cards

nearmint — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 22:31:38 +0000

Yesterday I added a virtual uncut sheet of 1967 Philadelphia football cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. I have not seen an actual uncut sheet, but by looking at badly miscut cards, I concluded that 1967 Philadelphia sheets were numbered like 1966 Philadelphia sheets. I have seen a picture of a 1966 sheet, so I used it to construct the 1967 virtual sheet.

Like the 1966 Philadelphia set, the 1967 Philadelphia set contains 66 double prints, but they are not documented in the price guides. The virtual sheet shows which cards are double prints.

(Click on the image to see the full sheet.)

New in the Gallery: 1963 Topps Virtual Uncut Sheets

nearmint — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 12:12:56 +0000

Yesterday I added virtual uncut sheets of 1963 Topps cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. I have not seen an actual 1963 Topps sheet, but I was able to figure out the sheets’ configuration by looking at miscut cards and applying a little logic. Unfortunately, these sheets are not yet completely accurate, and I could use your help. I believe I have all of the player cards in the right places, but I have not yet figured out the order of the team cards and checklists within their rows. If you happen to find any badly miscut team cards, checklists, or neighboring cards, please send me pictures of them.

With these sheets I introduced a new feature: I started highlighting the cards that are scarcest in high grades. This helps illustrate how a card’s position on the sheet affects its availability. As I have time, I will go back and do this for the other sheets, as well.

(Click on the image to see the full sheets.)

New in the Gallery: Virtual Partial Uncut Sheet of 1967 Topps Cards

nearmint — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 22:27:02 +0000

Last night I added a virtual partial uncut sheet of 1967 Topps cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. I modeled it after a proof sheet I found in an internet search. For now the partial sheet is on my Sheets In Progress page. At some point I will move it to a page of its own.

One bit of trivia: the cards in the bottom row of the partial sheet also appeared in Milton Bradley’s Win-A-Card game in 1969.

Click the image to see the rest of the partial sheet. (When the “In Progress” page comes up, scroll to the bottom.)

New in the Gallery: A Virtual Partial Uncut Sheet of 1955 Topps All-Americans

nearmint — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 23:51:47 +0000

While surfing the web this week, I found a picture of a partial sheet of 1955 Topps All-American football cards. The partial sheet contains 50 cards, half of the 100 cards in the complete set. Today I created a virtual version of it and added it to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. For now it’s on my “In Progress” page, but I will probably promote it to its own page when I get time.

New in the Gallery: 1956 Topps Virtual Uncut Sheet

nearmint — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 21:46:50 +0000

Today I added a virtual uncut sheet of 1956 Topps cards to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. I modeled the sheet after a picture of a partial sheet I found on the ‘net. This is the first Topps sheet I have seen with a pattern to the numbering; this allowed me to extend the partial sheet to a half-sheet.

(Click the image to see the whole virtual sheet.)

New in the Gallery: A Virtual Partial Sheet of 1957 Topps Football Cards

nearmint — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 10:56:19 +0000

Yesterday, while searching the internet, I found a tiny picture of a partial uncut sheet of 1957 Topps football cards. Using the picture as a model–and doing a lot of squinting!–I created a virtual partial sheet of 1957 Topps cards and added it to the Vintage Football Card Gallery. Judging by the partial sheet, 1957 Topps football cards were not released in two series, as the price guides say. They were released in just one series, with most of the high-numbered cards being short prints.

(Click on the image to see the rest of the partial sheet.)