Tuesday, March 29, 2016

The edge of confusion

I am pretty notorious for buying cards without looking very closely at them. Then, they arrive, and I tend to have a "huh, didn't know that" moment when I look at the card. I blame it on the eBay app. It's so easy to just quickly look at something and place a bid without thinking about it or properly examining an item.
Case in point. This beautiful 1999 Tino Martinez Topps Finest Gold Refractor came. This beauty is numbered to just 100. It's really well done. The protective coating is weird, but the gold is stunning. I took it out of the case to scan and examine it, but it wouldn't budge from the penny sleeve.

Look closer. Look at the edges of the card. For some reason, the edges are perforated. And it's not just any perforation. We're not talking SI for Kids cards. These are like the teeth of a freakin' piranha, digging into the flesh of the penny sleeve. It was nearly impossible to get this free from the sleeve, let alone get it back in. I definitely did some damage to the edges in the process.

I probably still would have bought the card had I known about the edges. It was a PC need. I just know that my attention to detail needs - errr, attention - and hopefully I can use this as a reminder to bid a bit more carefully.

4 comments:

  1. Hey TLC, while I was reading this, I thought I recalled this being the way all of the gold refractors were done that year. It seemed familiar. A little research and it turns out that I actually remembered correctly for once! If you find one of the gold refractors from '99 thT has straight edges, it's likely a test print or from an uncut sheet. Those will likely not have the serial numbering on the back. Great card!!!

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    1. Interesting. I didn't think it was an error, rather just an error on my part for not knowing. Glad this wasn't a long-term thing they did to Refractors. It doesn't look bad, it's just a pain. I would venture to guess there aren't many high-graded gold refractors from this particular set.

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  2. Love this set! Pulled a few myself back in the day. It seems like I have issues with penny sleeves and any jagged edged diecut cards.

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