Set Description:
The 1963 Topps set contains 170 standard-size cards of NFL players grouped together by teams. The card backs are printed in light orange ink on white card stock. Statistical information from the immediate past season and career totals are given on the reverse. The illustrated trivia question on the reverse (of each card) could be answered by placing red cellophane paper (which was inserted into wax packs) over the card. The 76 cards indicated by SP below are in shorter supply than the others because the set size is not the standard 132-card, single-sheet size; hence, all cards were not printed in equal amounts. There also exists a three-card advertising panel consisting of card fronts of Charlie Johnson, John David Crow and Bobby Joe Conrad. The back of the latter two players contains ad copy and a Y.A. Tittle card back on Johnson. Interestingly, Y.A. Tittle was also used as the player featured on the full box of packs. Finally, most of the cards in the set were printed with color variations in the background of the player photo. This resulting in one version of the photo that appears to have a purple tinted background while the other is a color corrected blue background. This is most evident on cards with a large portion of sky in the background of the photo. We have not yet identified if one version is more difficult to find than the other, but have not been able to track any price differences thus far.
