Proof It

One of the great things to happen to the research side of the hobby in the last 20 years has been the auctioning of a large number of production proofs and other materials.  Final color proofs are very useful in determining dates of issue as production indicia is often present and in the case of Topps it usually appears on what was to be the box bottom.

Having said that, I thought I would just show a few of my favorites today instead of really diving in to the minutiae. I think I have snow fatigue, so here's a little taste of summer

The 1968 3-D Baseball set is rare, boxes even more so.  Here is a box proof of this key 60's issue:

It's not a final color proof but rather a final printer's proof-note the little crosses on the box flaps. It's a little hard to tell but the card shown is not printed on the box top, it looks to be an actual 3-D card glued to the white blank space that dominates the proof:

I've lost the info but believe those came from Legendary Auctions.  This next one is a color proof though-the color bars along the left side are  dead giveaway:

Unlike the 3-D box, this 1971 Super Baseball card is a graphic (hello Pete!).  Funny Pete Rose story-at last year's National a bunch of us were headed off to dinner at Bob Chinn's, a Chicago food landmark of epic portions and we ran into Pete and friends in the lobby of our hotel.  We had about eight guys ready to go, most of us a bit, ah, stocky shall we say and one of our number shouted out "Hey Pete, we're going to Bob Chinn's for dinner, want to join us?!"  Pete took one look at out motley crew and deadpanned "From the looks of you guys there won't be any food left for me." Cracked up the whole lobby.

Lastly here is a 1971 Baseball Tattoos color proof:

This one has some corrections noted and I daresay is more colorful than the actual set.