1985 Topps Football box break

digicat

Hi all. I got a box of 1985 Topps Football from BBCE in the mail earlier this week and was very eager to rip into it. I always thought the 1985 Football set looked really cool, but after 1 pack, I knew that I'd be in love with this set.

The box was decent. I suspect that the box was exposed to some humidity at some point in the past, as the gum looked as if it had melted a bit into the cards, forming stains and crystals, as well as nasty brown discoloration of the once pink gum. Gross!!! Anyways, the gum damage was pretty extensive. The card it was touching was utterly destroyed, with a difficult to remove piece of gum stuck to the back, and the stain bleeding through to the next card, which would, if lucky, just get a minor and light stain. If unlucky, a rather large stain. Also on the unfortunate side, the wax-stained card seemed to have a gum-shaped indentation, which I suspect was caused by the gum in the pack below it. Anyways, 3 out of 15 cards instantly down for the count. Fortunately, it was mostly commons that got jacked like this... mostly. An otherwise nice Fryer and Singletary got the full force of the gum stain, while an Ellard, Montana, and a Simms got the bleed-through damage.

The cards within the box were very, very nice. Very slight warping, but that was fixed by a few days in a Card Saver 1 under some boxes. Overall, the centering was very nice. Most of the cards were well centered, or at worst 60/40. The notorious edges and corners weren't too bad. Many of the cards had very nice corners, some didn't. Many of the cards had some very nice looking edges, some were a bit chipped.

In all, I'm only about 58 cards short of the full set of 396 (not counting the 3 damaged cards per-pack), and I managed to pull all of the key cards for the set. In fact, I had found 2 Warren Moon cards by the time I was just 5 packs into the box! I took a look at the pop report for the 85 set and noticed that the Elway seems to be pretty tough to find in high grade. The Elway I pulled made me understand. Must have been it's placement in the sheet or something, because that bad boy had weird damage while the cards next to it in the pack looked just fine. Hmm.

Anyways, some scans...





Think any have a shot at some good grades? I'm thinking the Passing Leaders, the 2nd Moon, and the Munchak might have shots at 9 or higher, what do ya'll think?

sixdart

You did well on the centering of your cards ... the Payton is rarely centered. The 2nd Moon looks decent however check for surface/edge wrinkles (there often hidden by the black borders).

It's hard to tell the corner condition without black background scans. The Paytons look like a 7 & 8, the Moon 8 & 9 (2nd), Munchak 9 and the Leaders card 9. How do the corners look under 10x ... that will be the difference? If you get 9s on those cards, it will definitely pay for the box.

The more difficult cards are the Dent RC, Singletary, Payton, Elway, Clayton RC, Marino, Fouts, Record Breakers and Checklists. In general, certain teams are more difficult with this set as well ... Bears, Cowboys, Packers, Bills, Bengals, Colts and Seahawks.

Not bad for a 1st box! Most people come to appreciate this set after they open their 1st box (or give up then and there - lol). Just because it's considered a modern set doesn't mean the cards are automatically mint. By the time you by the product (lots of it), pay PSA, include shipping and handling, the PSA 9 prices on EBAY are a bargain.

Ahmanfan

it seems like '85 topps is a good bang for your buck. anyone else agree? and how tough REALLY are 9's out of wax? a few of those above look pretty 9-ish to me.
John

Ahmanfan

also was this wax or cello? which should have more high grade cards?
John

digicat

These came from a wax box. The only lame thing about the wax box was that each pack had 3 throw-away junk cards due to wax and gum stains. That's 20% of the cards in the box!!! I've never seen this kind of bleed-through before (then again, the oldest Topps issue I ever opened was 1982, but it didn't look this bad). The gum was nasty, brown, and what ever chemicals were in the gum, had sunk into the card and crystalized. At first, I thought it was mold, but it was some sort of crystal substance. Sorry, I wasn't hard-core enough to taste it or keep any of it around. I figured it'd give me cancer or something.



The card on the right is the totally dead card. The gum was stuck to it, and bled through to the front, making a stain that goes all the way through the card. You can see the stain on the front.

The card on the left is an example of the card next to the gum stained card. The stain doesn't go through the card, but obviously, has bad eye-appeal.

PS, my 100th post!

sixdart

That's why the rack pack boxes are so desired - no gum/wax damage - but you pay the price for them.

rana

I recently opened a full, well-cared-for 85T FB box without getting a major card (say the top 10 in the set) in a sure 9 or 10 (some borderline 8/9 cards, for sure - I'll know after the next $5 special, hopefully . Those boxes are definitely hit and miss. It looks like digicat got a good one. I've got another one I plan to open after xmas, so I'll see how that one goes. I've also got an 86 T FB I've been saving for a rainy day and hoping for a nice Young for my personal collection and a Rice or two to sell off. I think the 86 wax packs have a couple more cards per pack, so the odds are slightly better there.

Fabfrank

it seems like '85 topps is a good bang for your buck. anyone else agree? and how tough REALLY are 9's out of wax?

Very tough. Most cards from a wax box will be in the PSA 6-8 area. 10's are rare and 9's are hoped for. If you get a box and can get 15-30 cards that would grade 9 and maybe better....you've got a winner.

Axtell

Wax damage to 1-3 cards per pack is normal for this set...and why I have kind of soured on buying wax packs, but it looks like you did well.

There are some cards that may not seem to be rare, but for example, there are currently no checklitsts graded in 9...check the pop report, there will be some cards that will jump out at you.

Good luck with the set...it's my favorite football release.

digicat

It's certanly become my favorite Football issue. Once a special comes around, I'll send some stuff in and see what I got. I'm just glad I didn't find many of the key cards with wax/gum stains on them (just a Montana, Ellard, and Fryer).

So, I wonder how long it takes gum to start staining cards. I ripped some 1986 Topps baseball a few years ago, zero gum stains, the gum was still loose in the packs, and still sort-of smelled like gum. I even tried a piece... BIG MISTAKE!!!

ldferg

digi, i think it depends on the environment. i've opened some late 70's packs and have had the gum still have powder on them. and then i've opened others (i.e. 81 donruss) that were just like your 85 box. congrats on the cards you pulled. i have opened 1 85t fb wax box in the last 2 years and my problems were fading and not gum related. for that reason i try to stick with rack packs.