I have just purchased 500+ holographic cards that all have a bend in them.
The bend has not crease the cards but is significant enough to have me want to fix it before doing anything with them.
I have tried to put 6 of them at a time under some heavy books (around 40 pounds) for 24 hours but it didn’t help.
Regardless of if I was going to leave them under the books for a longer amount of time, replacing the cards this way 100 times is not an option for me as it is too time consuming.
The only way I have found that works is to carefully bend them back by hand 1 by 1 but it would take too long to do this individually for every card.
Does anybody have experience dealing with this problem on this scale?
This is going to sound crazy but an iron on low heat with no moisture and use a couple pieces of paper in between. Only put the iron on them for very short periods of time then put the cards under a book or something to let them cool off. If you get them too hot they will begin curling even more. I’ve only done this with a couple cards quite some time ago and both were holos. Turned out fine.
Are you wanting to grade them, sell them, keep them? If you are keeping them just put the cards in card savers. They will straighten out over time. If you want a faster solution bend them back slightly using your hands and use the books like you have been but it will take longer than 24 hours, maybe a week or two.
What you describe sounds like the natural curve of the card as a result of humidity. I wouldn’t worry too much though brother, just keep them in a low humidity environment (and flat) place for a couple weeks and you may see them come back into shape. The curves happen relatively quickly as they transition through the postal service.
Just a heads up, if you were planning to grade them, the bend (from my experience and from what I’ve seen others say too) wont knock the cards grade. I’ve sent cards that had the bend and gotten tens, as have others, but I imagine some grader sometime has knocked one for a bend? Who knows!
I accidentally bent a really expensive card once. It had a significant warp to it and didn’t lay flat on a surface. I slipped it inside a deck sleeve inside of a book with 50 pounds extra pounds sitting on top of the book. Took 3 months but it worked. If you’re really worried about the grades you can always do that with the more expensive cards. Fill up a book and wait 3 months lol
If it’s due to moisture then use desicants to straighten them out. Check out my Instagram page @pokegrown. I had a warped pack fresh 1st ed blastoise that I flattened overnight.
Thank you all for the replies! Ironing 600 cards is not something I have the time or patience to do. The easiest thing I see in your recommendations is to pop them in card savers. I can pop 100-200 and leave them in there for 2-3 weeks and that should do it? Should I also put books over the card savers?
Yes books over the card savers, make sure they are laying flat. Make sure to put the same amount of cards in each pile so the books are laying level and applying even pressure all around the card.
