Baseball Card Variations

I have always been fascinated with variations on baseball cards. It has carried over to my Matchbox car also but right now, we will concentrate on baseball cards.

Faithful readers will remember a few posts ago, I wrote about the 1951 Topps Baseball Card Set and there were two variations of two cards in the set. I'd like to show some more variations.

I also like proof baseball cards that are variations of the regular issue card. One main difference is that a proof card was never intended for sale while a variation card was sold in at least a small quantity. Proof cards will be a future topic here.

In 1959, there are 5 cards that come with or without a traded line. Here are the two variations of the card of #321, Bob Giallombardo. It may be a little hard to see but the bottom card has the line "Optioned to Montreal in March 1959" between the box at the top and the writeup.

In 1962, Topps reprinted the whole second series of cards because the first printing contained unnatural coloring. Some cards also had different poses. Here is the color variations in card #187, Gene Conley. The first card has a bright green background while the second is the natural background. Here are the pose variations of #176, Eddie Yost.

Here is the 7th series checklist from 1964, #517. The first card has incorrect numbering on the back, it starts at #565, goes to #587, then has #542 through #564. The second card has the correct numbering, #542 to #587.

Next post I'll continue with more variations from the 1960's baseball cards.