1979 Topps Football Forum

Just received a Cream Colored back.   It appears to be the same as my base set.  I looked at the images on the base set and it appears to have several shades of colors.   I pulled my set and looked through all the cards and I seen several shades on all 3 colors.  EXCEPT I had 10 cards the the background was more white then grey.  I looked at the Cream Colored Back images and they appear to look like the base set on some of the cards

Can some one  Tell me how to tell the diff for sure??

My set is a mix of the 2, which I still need to sort out. THe regular back are really grey and the cream backs I have are really bright. As they lay in the 800ct box on their sides I can easily distinguish which ones are which. The scans here are probably a mixture of a) different scanning methods leading to slightly different shadings and b) scans uploaded to the wrong location. I'm also wondering if some of your creamy backs are "dirty" from handling over the years and the grime has faded the back color some. My 68 and 70 Topps baseball are like that where the yellow has gone brownish in color.

They're quite obvious when held side-by-side.  It's a different cardstock that was used.  As Jim pointed out, don't trust the scans in the database.

That is what I'm seeing.  Appears I have 10 Cream Colored back in my set.

Thanks for making it  clear to me.

I was just starting to list 1979 Topps Football and fortunately clicked on the forum link.  The images posted in both the 1979 Topps Football and the 1979 Topps Football - Cream Back sets are all mixed up.  Perhaps someday, someone will straighten them out.  Until then, I think I'll follow the advice of ignoring the scans, and will just post the correct cards with the correct set variety.

Also why are the Team Checklists (Team Leaders cards) which are part of the base set and numbered within the base set listed as an insert set? 

Did they issue team checklists similar to baseball during the late 70s? Same photo and card number, but thinner stock and possibly cut from a sheet.

https://www.tcdb.com/Forum.cfm/Page/S/ID/3228/?MODE=VIEW&ThreadID=9759&C=5

Yes, similar to the 1977 and 1978 football mail-in team checklist sets.

I checked all the cards that I have listed and was able to identify one cream colored back.  However, I also noticed a bunch of cards where the yellow back was glossy.  Does anyone else see cards like this?

I'm wondering why we consider the "cream colored backs" a parallel set instead of a variation. We have certainly seen White Back / Gray Back variations in 1950s Topps Baseball cards.