Wednesday, March 8, 2023

Quality Control

 So, let's share a little problem with 1995-96 Upper Deck hockey providing the back drop. Sometimes when cards are stored for a long time in not so favourable conditions, they can brick and become near impossible to pull apart. That is like a worst case scenario for card collectors.

Sometimes, it's not enough to fully brinck, but instead there may be a bit of stickiness, or an endge where cards fuse, and then the damage may just be a sputtering of small white dots on the card, or tear on that one edge when you pull them apart.

Below are the keepers, and there were about a dozen damaged cards I didn't scan, which I will use for packaging.


I generally don't trade cards with anything that would be visible damage. I think there may be a few white specks on a few of these as I am not perfect, but no tear at all. Besides, for some of these, as you can see, we have up to a dozen copies, so I could spare a couple not being up to snuff.


It's one of the hazards of buying card lots, there can be some damaged cards like this. Not the end of the world if the bulk is big enough and damaged cards make up a small part of it, but worth keeping in mind depending on the years for the lot covered - and in some cases, the specific sets.

What's the worst bricking/sticking you have had to deal with personally?

3 comments:

  1. Ugh, that's a bummer! I'm glad I was able to sleeve all my UD hockey cards individually before that happened - but I've had some difficulty with 1993 Upper Deck football and 1994 Score baseball, among other '90s sets.

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    1. I do find it's a lot of 90s stuff. Older cards are just simple cardboard, so the issue may be gum staining if anything, and I like to think they generally learned and 2000s cards, for the most part, are better at not bricking.

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  2. I had a brick of 1992 Donruss that formed as a result of being in a basement storage room.. On the floor..

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