1985 Topps Collectors' Edition (Tiffany) cards

JWBlue · February 3, 2019 1:58PM

Do 1985 Topps Tiffany cards have a yellowish tint to them?

I just bought one and it is yellowish. Is that damage or is that how they are?

craig44 · February 3, 2019 2:29PM

Yes, the yellowing of 85's is more pronounced than other years. 86 also has some yellowing issues. Nothing to worry about, just the gloss that was used then. Similar to the hulking of many 90's chrome/finest cards

JWBlue · February 3, 2019 2:31PM

@craig44 said:
Yes, the yellowing of 85's is more pronounced than other years. 86 also has some yellowing issues. Nothing to worry about, just the gloss that was used then.

Thank you for the response.

So is the yellowing due to damage that all the cards have. If I had opened a set in 1985 would they have been white?

I am asking since I am wondering if I could find one that has less yellowing.

craig44 · February 3, 2019 2:37PM

It is exceedingly rare to find an 85 that has no yellowing. Some are more or less yellowed. Your clemens seems about average. I have two, one looks a little worse than yours, one a bit whiter. If you check out the mcgwires on eba y you will see the same. I think it was just the gloss mixture they used in 85 and 86. I have some 84's, 88's and 89's that are Lilly white. maybe topp s quality control was not as tight for those years

waxman · February 3, 2019 4:48PM

@craig44 said:
It is exceedingly rare to find an 85 that has no yellowing.

Is the yellowing due to exposure to the elements?

If I opened an '85 set today, would it be white or yellow?

(I suppose I'd have to rip open a set to find out) 😀

JWBlue · February 3, 2019 8:46PM

@waxman2745 said:

@craig44 said:
It is exceedingly rare to find an 85 that has no yellowing.

Is the yellowing due to exposure to the elements?

If I opened an '85 set today, would it be white or yellow?

(I suppose I'd have to rip open a set to find out) 😀

I found a listing with a 1985 Topps complete set. The cards were lily-white.

billwaltonsbeard · February 4, 2019 8:20AM

does the yellowing decrease the grade?

LarkinCollector · February 4, 2019 8:26AM

@JWBlue said:

@waxman2745 said:

@craig44 said:
It is exceedingly rare to find an 85 that has no yellowing.

Is the yellowing due to exposure to the elements?

If I opened an '85 set today, would it be white or yellow?

(I suppose I'd have to rip open a set to find out) 😀

I found a listing with a 1985 Topps complete set. The cards were lily-white.

Tiffany or base?

JWBlue · February 4, 2019 9:32AM

@LarkinCollector said:

Tiffany or base?

Tiffany. Someone correct me if I am wrong. If they are lily-white out of the box and they are yellow now that is unequivocally damaged.

krisd3279 · February 5, 2019 2:09PM

Either light or moisture could be having an effect on the gloss.

vols1 · February 6, 2019 12:22AM

It's common for plastic to yellow over time. And it could get worse. It has something to do with the polymer.

JWBlue · February 6, 2019 9:43AM

@vols1 said:
It's common for plastic to yellow over time. And it could get worse. It has something to do with the polymer.

Is this referring to the holder or gloss?

craig44 · February 7, 2019 6:37AM

probably the gloss. It is most likely some variant of polyurethane, which is just plastic. A side note, If you are collecting 85 tiffany's, you have selected one of the best years! either 85 or 91 have the lowest print runs. 5000 for 85 and i dont think they released a run for 91, but it was low.

originalisbest · February 7, 2019 8:18AM

It's for sure the gloss that causes the yellowing, and more or less, 99% of the '85s produced show it -- either a lot or a little. A bone-white '85 Topps Tiffany would stand out as very unusual, but over time (removed from it's sealed set) those will likely yellow as well. It is what it is for those.

rcmb3220 · February 7, 2019 9:19AM

The yellowing is why I don’t collect these cards. The appearance just doesn’t appeal to me.

53BKid · February 16, 2019 10:26AM

This should help:

I have five 1985 Tiffany Clemens Rookie cards, all bought back in '86, and all stored in the same plastic acrylic box ever since.

Two are bright white and three are varying degrees of yellowing.

Based on this, I don't think that the differences has to do with aging. I guess that as Topps produced these Tiffany sets, the appliqué applied to the production varied. I would assume that if you opened a sealed '85 Tiffany set that either all of the cards would be slightly yellowed consistently, or that they'd all be bright white.

JWBlue · February 18, 2019 4:16PM

Did these sets come shrink wrapped from the Topps out of the case?

Some eBay listings say they did. Other listings have said "Factory Sealed" with no shrink wrap on them.

Gemyanks10 · February 18, 2019 5:23PM

@JWBlue said:
Did these sets come shrink wrapped from the Topps out of the case?

Some eBay listings say they did. Other listings have said "Factory Sealed" with no shrink wrap on them.

No shrink wrap except for the 1991 tiffany sets as far as I know.. The colorful Tiffany factory sets out of the case came inside a white box which was just a tad bigger than the tiffany box. The tiffany box is also sealed by a piece of tape on the lid. No shrikwrap on any year I’ve ever seen except the last year of production 1991 as far as I know.

By factory sealed, the seller probably is referring to the tape on the lid.

KnightRider · April 21, 2019 9:43AM

I have very limited experience with 1985 Topps Tiffany, but my experience concurs with 53BKid's assessment, in regards to whether these cards can have a slight yellowish tint right out of the box.

My LCS had several of these sets in one of their display cases back in 1985 or 1986. They had opened one set and put the cards on top of the factory box to show what they looked like. All of the cards had this distinct yellowish tint to them. 10-year-old me immediately noticed the color difference between these and regular 1985 Topps, the same way that you noticed 1984 Topps Traded cards looked different (slightly on front and much different on back) than regular 1984 Topps baseball cards. As such, I just assumed the yellowish tint was a design feature of these cards, made purposefully with some special lacquer to exhibit their specialness.

Granted, I only saw this one set back in the day, so I can't draw any sweeping conclusions. But I can say for sure that this one set was simply made this way. Time did not yellow those cards. (Now, could the cards yellow additionally over time? I don't know.)

I'm probably unlike most, but I prefer to see 1985 Topps Tiffany with a yellowish tint. It was how I first saw them, and it's how I expect them to be.

ReggieCleveland · April 21, 2019 11:21AM

This sounds a lot like the '87 Fleer Glossy Brown backs.

Arthur

1985 Topps Collectors' Edition (Tiffany) cards

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