Shortly after the set was released, Williams signed an exclusive contract with Topps, Bowman's primary competitor.

Now barred from using Williams's picture and name, Bowman substituted Williams' teammate Jimmy Piersall as card number 66 in all subsequent printings, duplicating the front and back of Piersall's other card in the series, number 210.

In its 1956 set, Topps issued six team cards, the Cubs, Reds, Orioles, Indians, Braves and Phillies, in three different versions.

The first release showed a team picture, obviously taken the year before and correctly labeled as "1955 Chicago Cubs, "1955 Cincinnati Reds" and so on.

For example, the same photo of future major league manager Bob Kennedy appears in the 1954, '55 and '56 Topps sets.

The '57 Mantle card shows a posed shot of the switch hitting center fielder finishing a left-handed swing.

When the card was assembled, the intruder was "blacked out", leaving a perfect silhouette, a "ghost", in back of the Mick.

The outline is far more prominent and clear in some copies of the card than it is on others, inspiring debate among collectors as to whether Topps issued a corrected version, with the interloper better camouflaged.

In the 1957 Topps set, card number 20, of Henry Aaron, features a classic example of a "flipped negative".

Burdette joined with Warren Spahn to form the heart of a pitching staff that would carry the Braves to two consecutive World Series.

The front of his 1959 Topps card, number 440, shows Burdette, a right-handed pitcher, with a glove on his right hand at the top of a left-handed windup.

The year before Topps had taken no chances, identifying him as "Lou" on the front of card number 10, and "Lew" on the back.

The set's entire second series (the 87 cards numbered 110 through 196) was first printed and distributed without the proper amount of ink for the photographs; the result has been known ever since as the "Green Tint" series, for the sky and dirt in the backgrounds of some cards are decidedly green, rather than blue or brown.

In addition, misspelled words/names, print blotches, missing border sections, and different colored backgrounds (like the 1973 manager cards) are all considered errors although relatively few of these are corrected.

Anticipating that possibility, Topps substituted the term "Washington Nat'l League" onto early-series Padres' cards, since the nickname of the potentially re-located team was not known.