I had always thought before the days of the internet that the asterisk things were a way for Topps to identify either which printing plants a card lot was printed or which printing run. Not necessarily if it was OPC or Topps. Usually a "printed in Canada" indicted OPC cards/stickers.
Another rabbit whole says the asterisks are an indication of which sheet cards were printed on. Not where they were printed or which run they were printed in. Low number sheets had one asterisk and hi-numbers had two.
Some googling seems to support the sheet theory.
I collect: Baseball, Football, Hockey, Mostly Vintage pre1980, My Homie teams - Washington/Baltimore Teams Senators (Twins, Rangers), Expos/Nationals, Redskins, Capitals, Bullets/Wizards - HOFers - Non-sport (mostly TV shows and movies).
My Trade List is very much a work in progress
CaptKirk42s Trading Card Blog Curly W Cards Strive For '65 YouTube klandersen42