A Look At Previously Featured Unissued Proof Cards

The Rams ended the 1981 season unsure of who their future quarterback would be. Longtime Ram Pat Haden and team newcomer Dan Pastorini both shared snaps in '81, but the club ended the year ranked poorly in every major passing category. Topps had the unenviable task of deciding which of the two to feature in their 1982 card issue, and ultimately made the decision to go with six-year Rams veteran Pat Haden for inclusion into the set. A one-of-a-kind Dan Pastorini acetate proof card was designed by Topps artists, however, and survives today tucked away in the collection of the Consummate Card Collector Webmaster.

Ironically, both Haden and Pastorini would retire prior to the 1982 season, opening the door for Vince Feragammo and former Colt Bert Jones to handle quarterbacking duties for the Rams.

Tommy John was traded from the Yankees to the Angels on August 31, 1982, and proceeded to help California with their late-season push for the pennant by winning four of his seven starts. In the postseason, John split his two starts in the ALCS with a win and loss versus the Brewers.

John's late season trade was an unwelcome event for the designers at Topps, who were forced to hurriedly airbrush two photos for his 1983 card. Because of a tight proof production schedule - and no photos of John in his new Angels threads available - Topps artists opted to create a 1983 proof card of John showing him as a member of his former team, the Yankees. It is estimated that only two or three of these cards were printed, making this a prized specimen in the CCC proof collection.

The first 1983 Topps Baseball proof run contains numerous photo cropping variations inside the player photo circles (near the bottoms of the cards). In each variation, the player's face is larger and takes up the majority of the circle. Topps designers obviously decided it would be more appealing to widen the shots, allowing more background to be seen. The Bert Blyleven cards above are an example of the difference between the first run proofs (top) and versions issued to the public (bottom).

According to our research here at the Consummate Card Collector, we believe that roughly 35-50% of all first run proof cards (regular player cards with this design) have similar cropping variations. We're not sure if these "big head" variations exist for the major rookies (Gwynn, Boggs, Sandberg).

This 1977 Topps Jerry White proof (top) features a backwards photo, due to a pesky reversed negative being used to create the card (note that the proof is also missing the signature across the photo of the card). This variation exists in proof form only, and was never issued to the public.

Reversed negative proof cards seem to be harder to find than other kinds of proof variations, making this card a welcome part of the Consummate Card Collector's proof collection.

The most obvious reversed-negative proof we've seen to date has to be this 1979 Topps football card of Colts defensive back Norm Thompson. While unissued reversed-negative proofs are scarce by nature, baseball and hockey examples seem to be easier to find than football (football jersey numbers are easier to see in most photos, helping to prevent reversals).

Still considered one of the greatest streaks in professional sports history, the Philadelphia Flyers did not lose an NHL hockey game between Oct. 14, 1979 and Jan. 6, 1980. Fittingly, Topps decided to honor the streak with card number one in their 1980-81 Hockey set. The staff of the Consummate Card Collector has recently uncovered a proof which contains a different photo than the issued version (the proof is the top card, showing Hall of Famers #7 Bill Barber on the left and #16 Bobby Clarke on the right). While it is unclear why the original proof photo was scrapped in favor of the issued version (bottom card), we might speculate that Topps editors disliked the "wasted" space seen on the right side of the proof photo.

The top of the proof card also has "1979-1980" printed in yellow, which was changed to red before production.

The most commonly found unissued proof cards seem to be ones featuring color variations within the designs of the cards. Some color variations were created deliberately by card designers (which allowed editors the chance to choose the colors they preferred), while other variations were actually mistakes made during the early stages of the printing process.

This 1974 Reggie Rucker card (top) is a typical example of an unissued proof card containing a color variation. The card features a green goalpost border, which was changed to blue (bottom) before the card was printed for distribution. It is unknown whether this particular example was a color test or printing mistake.

A sharp eye will catch occasional color differences between proofs and the versions that were actually issued to the public. Topps' 1973 Super Bowl card (#139) is a case in point. An early proof of this card clearly shows the team names near the bottom of the card printed in green, while the issued card shows the team names in blue. We can only speculate why changes like this are made, and our guess here is that designers wanted to balance the team names and scores with the blue and red colors featured on the ribbon on the left of the card.

Here's a striking border variation from the 1978 Topps baseball issue. The blank-backed printers proof card shown here features a purple border, while a yellow border exists on the issued card. The proof card is visually heavy on dark "cool" colors, and we can certainly see how the issued yellow border lightens things up a bit.