Topps Finest/Grading
 

Hi All -
Curious if anyone has any insight on whether it is better to leave the protective coating on or remove prior to grading.

Depends on the condition of the peel. If there are bubbles or scratches on the peel, they will count against the card grade. However, if the peel is perfect, the card will be worth more graded with it on.
However, you're better off getting a 10 without the peel than an 8 with peel.

Thanks.
The 5 have do not appear to have any bubbles, scratches either but not 110% on that.
Regardless, I will send them to SGC and hope for the best, if nothing else they will be stabbed and protected from any future issues.

My observations, as someone who bought quite a few Finest cards back in '90s:

Personally, looking at those Finest coatings always bothered me. Totally clear coatings generally looked fine. The ones that had printed instructions (telling the collector to peel them off) looked ridiculous to me, though.

I began experimenting with the peel-off coating, using commons, fairly soon after getting these. The results were frustratingly inconsistent.

Sometimes, the peel would come off cleanly and reveal a pristine surface. I believe this is what Topps intended.

Other times, the peel would come off cleanly; however, the surface would look spotted and slightly cloudy/filmy. The appearance reminded me of a glass coming out of an older dishwasher.

Occasionally, the peel would remove bits of surface from the card. Seriously. I would remove the peel and wind up with a card that suffered "paper loss." I didn't call it that because no part of the card seemed like paper. The end result was the same, though. Removing the peel had removed part of the surface of the card.

I haven't done this in a while, perhaps in the year 2005 or so. Cards that had been sitting around for 10 years seemed to fare worse than the cards did when they were relatively new. I personally wouldn't peel off a 25 year old coating without first testing on some commons from the same set. Even then, don't expect the process to go smoothly 100% of the time.

Smart idea to test your peel technique on commons first. I have heard that some people put tape on the peel to get a grip on it without having to work around the corners, which could ding them.

Was the original intention of these cards to peel the coating?
I feel like they would look better without the coating however if it's best to keep in tact then that's what I may do.

I don't trust myself to peel the coating, so I just leave it. I don't have any commons to test with as I only have a select few of the star players that I collect.

Have personally submitted hundreds of refractors to PSA.

Definitely want to peel. Odds are much better you will get a better grade.

I only grade peeled b/c I like the way they display better

Despite the "wisdom of the crowd" there is no premium whatsoever associated with cards that have the peel vs. those that do not. So a PSA 9 w/peel will sell for the same amount as one without.

In my experience - opinions may vary - somewhat counterintuitively - using a blunt sewing needle to get a corner started under magnification is the best way to peel these things without any damage.

As far as the passage of time and removing the peels, with the peels that have "peel and remove" printed, if someone left the card in the light to display the card, a permanent shadow may now exist on the card that says peel and remove where the light was obstructed and the rest of the card faded.

With the 95's occasionally what looks like a refractor line is just a line on the protective coating sheet and will come off when peeled.