Card Quality from Factory Sets
canyoubelieveit
Posts: 239 ✭✭✭
Given two sets, 1987 Topps and 1987 Topps Tiffany, and assuming they have been stored in similar conditions and handled similarly throughout their lives, is the quality of the cards pulled from the set in terms of centering, surface, and edges/corners better in the Tiffany set? I have had bad luck with standard Topps sets from the mid-late 80's recently but I have never cracked a Tiffany set before. I know the print run is less and the card stock is better in the Tiffany set but I am more asking about the actual average quality of the cards contained in the set.
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Centering and print defects are the problems. If the sets have never been opened/handled, the cards should have nice corners, edges and surfaces.
If I had factory sealed sets I would not open them.
centering is what will kill you on those.
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
I have heard and had only one example.. Got no 10's, few 9,s and many 8.s
from a sealed set
1987 donruss
they are in smaller packs wrapped in cellophane
that damaged the corners a tad. So few 10's
1948-76 Topps FB Sets
FB & BB HOF Player sets
1948-1993 NY Yankee Team Sets
Haven't opened and factory sets from 1987, but opened a 1990 Score and the Bo Jackson B/W card was at the very end and had BAD corners.
Opened a bunch of Bowman sets from 1989-1991 and was disappointed at the results. Big rookie cards almost all off-center and a few had "dings". Was a fun project as I got the sets at a good price.
I would be very hesitant to open a Tiffany set.
Very doubtful that you will get a centered Bonds out of the regular set.
It is fun opening them, but then you end up with a pile of worthless cards you ask yourself "WHY?"
Tiffany sets are selling for about $400.00 right now. I would put it away.
I was buying 80's and 90's factory sets for Topps and sorting them into binders. I haven't purchased the Tiffany set yet, but they are available for between $400-700 each. There are listings with both the regular set and the traded series together. I think it would be fun to open them but if the quality of the regular set is any guide, I think I'll hold off. If I change my mind, I'll post the purchase and set break here.
I can't speak for the Tiffany sets but on the 89 UD Baseball it can be hit or miss based on centering. I have probably opened around 10 over the last 20 years. Of the last 5 only one hit on a PSA10.
Successful card BST transactions with cbcnow, brogurt, gstarling, Bravesfan 007, and rajah 424.
It's great fun opening factory sets, you know you're going to get one of all the great players and rookies.
Oddly enough that's going to be my rainy day project this winter, if it ever rains here in SoCal that is. I purchased 4 1987 Topps baseball factory sets and 5 vending boxes. I ripped two of the vending just to see what's what. Next is to open a factory set and put it into a binder and upgrade it over time. Out of each vending about 77 in each would be ok to replace badly off center cards. When I get tired of these then I will go back and sort some more Wheat pennies. Cheers.
I just went through 5 1991 Bowman factory sets that I had pulled the stars and rookies from to make sure all the good cards were removed. giving the rest to a buddy.
One of the sets had a badly dinged corner on about 3/4 of the cards.
I had a bad experience with a 1994 topps set recently. Factory sealed but when I opened it, it was all bricked. Tried everything to get the cards apart safely but even so ended up with probably half or more with gloss transfer or loss. Luckily, Pedro Martinez, Manny Ramirez, and the Prospects card with Jeter made it through ok. It's a shame because they actually did a pretty good job on centering in this set and the corners and edges are nice and sharp!
I would say the overwhelming majority of pre-1989 Topps Tiffany sets on eBay are searched/resealed at least once. I've written out long guides on how to spot resealed sets more than once here so I have to imagine that if you searched for the last few Tiffany threads you would find it.
I'm at the point where I stopped buying Tiffany sets altogether. If you want a Tiffany card, buy the individual card.
Arthur
Wow, I will have to check this out. Thanks for the tip!
That guy in the video! The box was shrink wrapped with a second new seal over the broken original seal. And whoever did it didn't even stuff the box with poor examples of the other cards...just left them out altogether. He was ranting about it being an inside job by a Topps employee but that is just crazy talk: None of those cards would have been exceptional at that point unless they just pulled out all rookies. I don't think that was the case though as I did see other rookies as he was going through it. No, the specific high value cards were pulled after the fact, probably very recently.
I haven't seen any shrink wrapped examples for sale recently so I guess the scammers figured out people were wise to that. The damaged box tips were very useful though and going back over to Ebay, I see some of that damage. Particularly the back hinge edge: lots of chipping on many of the "sealed" boxes for sale. Question, when chipping occurs from opening, as opposed to just handling issues, where do you expect it to be most prominent? The middle of the edge or more towards the corners of the back edge?
I agree with just buying the individual card. Years ago I got really frustrated trying to hit on a Rice rookie in PSA 9 grade and finally stopped trying. To this day I still contend the 86 Topps Football cards are the hardest to grade.
Successful card BST transactions with cbcnow, brogurt, gstarling, Bravesfan 007, and rajah 424.
I don't have a lot of experience opening Tiffany sets, one to be exact. 1990 Bowman Tiffany. In 1998. Slightly more than half the set had cards with a line, top to bottom vertical in the center, on them. Never again for me. I agree with @ReggieCleveland , if looking for 1 or 2 cards, just buy them.
The difficult part is that people look at a set like 1987 Topps Tiffany and see that there's a half dozen cards they can make their purchase price back on if the card 10s. So the temptation to roll the dice is great. I've been buying these sets (1980s Tiffany) and studying the boxes for years now and I implore anyone contemplating spending their money on a "sealed" Tiffany set to examine it with extreme prejudice. Keep in mind, one way they get searched is through the bottom of the box, too.
The sets on the market today have been picked over so many times over the last 30+ years that the current seller is probably a completely honest dealer who thinks they have a completely legitimate, factory sealed set.
Arthur
You think that's scary? Check this out. The end of "sealed box" collecting is nigh!
https://www.livescience.com/56054-new-tech-could-read-closed-books.html
Ok, slight exaggeration, but the technology is developing rapidly.
The boxes can be opened from the bottom, leaving the top appearing completely undisturbed.
If you HAVE to buy a pre-1989 Tiffany set, get clear scans of every single side of the box, including the bottom. If the bottom was opened there will be residual damage but you have to know what to look for.
Arthur