Topps and Quality Control

I was putting together a trade package tonight, and I was struck by how many really off-center, mis-colored, and otherwise less-than-decent printing jobs I found throughout especially the 1977 Topps set.  These aren't the worst by any stretch of the imagination, but they are representative:

This doesn't even touch the surface of some of the amazingly horrible airbrushing jobs they did to create cards for the Mariners and Blue Jays in that set.  I mean, as an example, it appears that Topps got Grant Jackson's photo above while he was standing in front of an aquarium somewhere -- but hey, it's not an airbrushed hat!  

After going through those cards and some of the cards before it in the 1970s and then getting into the 1978, 1979, and 1980 sets, I will say that those later sets seemed to get better.

Then, as production increased with the competition in the early 1980s, things didn't stay wonderful, unfortunately -- badly cards still got by their quality control personnel:

From this perspective, certainly, I do not long for the "good old days."  Technology has helped even these issues out, I believe.