T206 Missing Red Ink Cards

There are some T206s that seem to show up with missing red ink more than others.

Let's take a look at the two most common in my observation. 

The Harry Niles shows up quite a bit.  Here is a nice side by side comparison of the regular card and the missing red ink version.

 

As you can see the red is completely missing in the card on the right.  Boston is missing from his jersey and the red stripe on his hat is gone. 

 

Another very common, in fact more common I think than the Niles card, is the Bill Sweeney card.  Here is the side by side of the Sweeney.

 

 

On the Sweeney you can see a lot more missing red than on the Niles.  The B on his chest and hat are gone and all the red trim on the uniform is no longer there.

 

For years these cards were accepted as legit errors where they just missed the red color pass during printing.  As you can see from the Niles above, TPGs used to even grade them as missing ink cards on the flips.  Nowadays I don't believe  the TPGs do this anymore. 

 

This is because the red ink can fade away from sunlight before any other color on the card fades away. 

 

The reason I don't think they just missed a red color pass is because it's always the same few cards that are missing red ink.  My argument is that if the red ink pass was missed during printing, then ALL the cards on the sheet would have no red ink versions out there, but they just don't exist.  So how could just the Niles and Sweeney miss the red ink pass and all the other cards on the sheet didn't?  That just didn't happen. 

 

So are most of the missing red ink cards altered or are they legit?  What do you think guys? 

 

Enjoy the hobby all...it's a great one.