1979 and 1983 Color Variations

 I have a few sets in factory boxes that are not sealed, so I checked them out recently.  In general, I've seen 1983s with clean, white borders and others that are somewhat faded.  I figured that the issue was cards being left out on a shelf for years.  Now, I am not so sure.

Here are some photos from the set.  I am not the original owner, so I don't know enough about this one.

My first thought was that the cards were put back into the box at some point.  Maybe not, since many were still attached like the Stieb and Sutter cards.   Stieb has the nice, clean white coloring and Sutter doesn't. 

The next two photos show cards that are still attached, so not a lot was done with this set.

I separated them into the two different colors.  Maybe this explains why I have such a variety in the set.

Yes, I should have taken pictures of the backs.  Maybe I will add those later.

1979s

I've been aware of the two totally different colors used in the 1979 set.  There is a red team name on thinner card stock and a orange-like color on thicker card stock.  It looks like both were possible with factory sets.

Here are pictures two of the factory sets that I have that are not sealed.  The red set is on the left in all pictures.

Like the 1983s, the one version has clean, white borders.  That is the red version on the left.  The Kellogg's script is also more bold.  I don't think that the image below (from my camera, instead of scanned) reflects how much the orange set card is NOT clean and white.  It looks much dirtier in my hand.  As you can see, the entire photo just isn't as clear.

The back has similar issues.  It is much more blue and white with the red set on the left.  

I've read that they printed the factory sets in two different places, but I don't know anything else about this.  Other than going to find stories in old hobby magazines, I don't have a way to get answers from the source since Kellogg's isn't really in the card business.