Card Numbering

Am I the only one who wonders just how Topps decides which cards to put at each number?  Sure the x00 was always the elite stars, x50 was the next tier of stars, and the xx0 numbers were the lesser stars.  But how do they decide who gets 331?

One thing I kind of noticed going through Topps cards for my frankenset was that cards from consecutive years ended up near each other or at the same number alot.  So even though I don't know how Topps decides, I do know that sometimes they don't like to change anything.  Take 1978 and 1979:

They decided

to put Angels

in the same spots

in the set

in 1979

swapped those. oops

as they had

in 1978

they liked it som uch they did it a 3rd year.

over

and over

and over

and over.

They like 48 so much, they kept it going through 1981

And those are just the number that line up exactly.  There are other examples of numbers just off: 214/212, 400/402, 429/424, 454/453, 478/477, 529/530, 579/580, 600/601, and 655/654 (1978 first in all pairs).  I know I can't be the first one to see this.