Trimmed or not? 1985 McGwire

digicat · July 24, 2007 12:15PM

I picked up this McGwire, and am kinda worried about the upper left edge. It seems to have a bit of a hook to it. What do you think?

Brian48 · July 24, 2007 1:10PM

Looks more like a miscut too me. Just as bad in my opinion for a modern card.

EagleEyeKid · July 24, 2007 2:25PM

I'm not sure if you can see the lines I've made....they're red,
but IMHO your card is trimmed. In fact, I believe all 4 edges got a taste of a blade. The bottom is perfectly straight. The right edge is also perfectly straight. The top edge is off as it sinks a bit to the right , and so is that left edge. At first, I thought maybe the card wasn't positioned straight, but 2 sides confirmed it's str8.....so yes, that is a hook on the left and it's a little wavy as well.......3 perfect razor sharp edges (top, bottom, and right, and one a little wavy with a hook).

Go get a refund.

rube26105 · July 24, 2007 3:23PM

way it looks to too me eagle-eye-man people are sneakey with that stuff anymore!!, i dont know how many 50 bowman football ive sent in and came back trimmed,stick it up to another 85 card and check it out,too weird of a hook in there, might be cut from a sheet too
randy

digicat · July 24, 2007 4:13PM

Asside from the left edge, it does measure up to other 85s. Maybe a slightly sloppy sheet cut job?

Another interesting thing I notice, and I wasn't able to get the scan to capture this, down the l/r edges, on the back, you can see the cardboard giving in sorta. Kinda like fine surface wrinkle going down the sides of the card, right down the edges. I've seen this with 71s and 92 Bowmans before, and these were already slabbed as 8s and 9s. I've never seen this with 85 Topps though. Curious.

jmbkb4 · July 24, 2007 4:36PM

looks fine to me.

SDavid · July 24, 2007 10:11PM

It's tough to tell without looking at the edges under a loupe, but I've seen several of those cards - including PSA graded ones - where the card measured wider at the top or bottom. Once I saw a PSA 8 that was literally 1/8" wider at the top. Maybe that card was altered and they missed it, but I doubt a trimmer would have settled for an 8. I also doubt a trimmer would have done that bad a job, lol. Bottom line - I think a lot of these cards were cut weird at the factory. Since it's such a cheap card now, I would just send it in.

TNTonPMS · July 24, 2007 11:07PM

I have a card that is the same , not the same card though

90 Topps Bernie Williams . . .

Graded Mint , but not by PSA .

I'm not really sure if that could considered Mint , But I'm not a card professional grader- er

digicat · July 25, 2007 2:10AM

When the sheets are factory cut by Topps, how do they do it? Individual sheets, or stacked sheets?

When you try to cut through a stack of paper using an office paper cutter, you'll get some shifting near the bottom of the stack, resulting in some "hooks".

I saw from some uncut sheets on Ebay that the placement of the McGwire card on a typical 1985 Topps sheet is the left most column, one row up from the bottom.

Trimmed or not? 1985 McGwire

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