Hey all
Just got this little set in the mail, condition would be played.
Can post pictures if anyone would like to see
Wondering as to what this could potentially go for.
These are not for PSA =P
Any help with value is greatly appreciated!
Thanks
Post some pics captn
Faxx, this fourum exist because proof
It’ll also be interesting to see how the cards are bowing out. Usually with square cuts, bowing comes from either because of humidity (as is common for those sets), or because they were hand cut.
Bowing usually has little to do with humidity, at least not directly. And bowing should have nothing to do with whether a card was hand cut or factory cut.
As I have explained before, bowing of foils typically occurs because of the manufacturing method used to apply the foil film to the card.
Card shock is dimensionally stable, meaning you can’t easily deform it with additional tension. Instead, with too much tension card stock will ultimately rip or tear. The foil layer (typically some version of metalized mylar) is extremely thin and deforms under tension. It will stretch a bit. To get a smooth holofoil film onto card stock a bit of additional tension is applied to the mylar film as the materials are combined. This minimizes wrinkles, air bubbles, and other defects in the foil film.
Once cards are cut and packaged, foils are kept flat by the other cards in a pack or in a box. But if individual cards are kept loose (including in penny sleeves or loose binder pages), the foil layer eventually tries to release the added tension. Over time the equilibrium will mean the foil gets a bit smaller with the card stock curling to accommodate the tension release.
The only way water (or high humidity) might come in to play is the effect on the card stock. Moisture might soften the card stock a bit, allowing the foil layer to curl more or curl faster than it otherwise would. But I have had foil cards in climate controlled conditions for years, and those kept loose curled regardless of moisture. I have had other foils in very filled boxes or in top loaders that never showed curls.
Other forces may also impact foils. I have had foils in top binder sheets curl the wrong way (towards the back). This was a long term result of having a binder of 9-card pages kept flat. The binder wasn’t full and the top page got caught where the top page wasn’t flat, but instead curled up in the middle (left to right). A foil in that middle section actually curled the wrong way over time, which caused some light creasing on the back of the card. That creasing damage was not something that could be undone, like the normal curl in a loose foil card.
@hammr7, you just said that humidity could play into it. I’m not refuting that the cards don’t bow naturally as you say, however. I admit to having seen your description of natural bowing myself in some of my other cards that were well taken care of.
I have, however, seen evidence of square cuts being cut by hand having owned and handled quite a number. You see them from time to time on Ebay. The way they bow out usually looks different than more natural means of bowing (humidity or old-era foil) - similar to how you would cut a thick piece of paper on a cutting board - the card sides bend with how it was cut (much in the way you can curl ribbon with scissors). Where as machine-cut cards are more like “punching” them out in one motion - faked square cuts often don’t showcase that.
I wonder if the bowing you experienced came from an uncut sheet that was rolled up (for shipping or storage) before being hand cut? Having owned a number of uncut sheets over the years I know how hard it is to flatten them back out, even just to frame and hang.
Yeah sorry. That was what I meant to imply. That fake square cuts originate from uncut sheets.