New '61 Topps Variation Discovered

It's not quite the yellow letter Mantle.

It's not even the 1979 Topps Bump Wills 'Blue Jays' or the 1989 Fleer Billy Ripken 'FF'.

However...those who appreciate the idiosyncrasies of vintage baseball cards will be interested in a printing variation that has been unveiled on Ron Fairly's 1961 Topps, some 47 years after it first popped out of wax packs.

There's a little green bleed to the color on the back in some cards--none in others. Here's a look at the variation and a little background behind the latest addition to your master set checklist from Beckett.com.

On the back of Ron Fairly’s card (#490), the area below the bottom stitch of the baseball (where the card number is located) is either white or green. Thanks to the alert eyes of Beckett Marketplace Dealer Jim Tripodi (Diamond Jim’s) for the discovery. Hobby veterans Dan Hitt (Senior Manager – Sports Data Publishing) and long-time “Errors and Variation” columnist Rich Klein agree that this is a legitimate, newly discovered variation.