1953 Topps Baseball edges. Why are they in bad shape?

TheDetroitCollector

Curious on the history of 1953 Topps Baseball. I just bought a graded 1953 Topps Bob Hooper. I love the 1953 Art. It is a SCG graded high 8.5. But when I look at the back, the top edge of the card looks bad. I've noticed a lot of 1953 Topps cards has these same issues. The back top edges will have a little paper loss and doesn't look clean. Was there a printing problem back in the day? Does it effect the grading standards? When PSA opens up crossovers again, I was looking to submit, but I honestly don't think it would get an 8.5

Mo_Mentum

The 1952T to 1956T Topps Baseball cards were actually OPC produced, meaning that the machinery cut these cards longitudinally, with a WIRE, not a blade. This imparted an edge that looks like it was cut by a saw toothed implement or reciprocating/vibrating "wire", like the way a piece of wood cut by a jigsaw might look if left unplanned. The effect is made even more profound when you stack them. Piled, say 50 of them atop one another, the look is similar to a saw or jigsaw cut, unplanned block of wood.

This is the way they were produced. In fact, in 1986 or so, the cards from Mr. Mint's 1952T unopened case find were being sold as partial runs, held fast by money wrappers, and the edges of the stacks had that look like a block of freshly cut, unplanned wood!

TheDetroitCollector

wow very interesting. Thank you

82FootballWaxMemorys

from: https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/1018413/why-are-rough-cuts-not-considered-damage/p1

@Jayman1982 said:
For anyone that is still interested, right around the 15 min mark of this podcast they talk about O Pee Chee rough cuts, they even put up a picture of an older cutting machine:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Apwx_w5cSXA

@Frozencaribou said:

@Jayman1982 said:
In the video I just posted the rough cuts allegedly occurred when** OPC employees were given bonuses for producing higher volumes of cards to ship**. They ended up putting more sheets in the cutting machine and the blade ended up tearing through the stack instead of a cleaner cut that would have been the case if a normal thickness of sheets was loaded.

It is so interesting to me that the hobby beliefs diverge when it comes to research and historical record versus subjective theories. Photos of the slitter at the OPC plant in 1970 is pretty clear evidence on the way OPC cut its cards.

In the attached interview, Bobby Burrell speculates that the blue lines were from a secondary print run, as it would have been very unlikely that OPC would have corrected the lines after starting the presses.

I always imagined that sheets were cut one at a time. Knowing now that they were cut 20-30 sheets at a time made me rethink what I was seeing when I look at vintage Parkhurst or OPC hockey cards. It's just like cutting too many pieces of paper at once in an average guillotine style paper cutter. The thicker the stack of paper, the rougher the cut.

Nathanael