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Old 01-10-2016, 07:58 PM   #26884
Merkle923
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Join Date: Aug 2013
Posts: 2,208
Don Zimmer 1962 Topps

Not to ruin your fun, Jack, but of course there is a version of the '62 Zimmer card not just showing him in a Mets uniform but identifying the Mets as his team.

This was on a proof sheet from the famous "Ceiling Find" of 1985, when a fellow near New London, Connecticut, was remodeling his rec room, pulled down the false ceiling, and found that the insulation was made up of 50-75 paper and aluminum proofers' sheets made for Topps in 1962. The home's previous owner had been an employee at the printer's and saw an opportunity to do a little DIY which doubled as a kind of time capsule for card collectors. With the exception of proof cards and sheets from the 7th Series of Topps Baseball from that year, every 1962 Topps Baseball, Football, or Hockey proof - paper or aluminum - came from that ceiling.

In a serious case of bad timing, the owner contacted me at the exact point when I found myself with the smallest amount of money to my name since I had been a sophomore in High School. I was able to buy one sheet for myself by borrowing money from my then 17-year old sister, and for the rest I referred them to several respectable dealers. The Zimmer and a couple of other fun proof variations were on the only one I got. This is the only known copy, and while some of the other sheets were proofs of individual or multiple colors, there weren't any of these preliminary tests for this one sheet.

One other note: on the subject of altering uniforms on photographic baseball cards, it's not like this is anything new. The first such changes by a manufacturer date at least as far back as the manufacturers of the Old Judge Cigarette cards of 1887-1890. They changed city names on uniforms (almost always easily visible) but also erased some so artfully that you would not have noticed then and would be hard pressed to notice today.

So, your complaint is 129 years too late. Here's the Zimmer/Mets:
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