1976 Topps Question
 

I recently purchased a complete 1976 Topps set, and I am in no way an expert. I know MC issues are rampant throughout many baseball sets in the 60s and 70s, but am wondering about "wavy" cuts. To me, many of them look trimmed, yet they all measure correctly, and many of the "cuts" look symmetrical to the other side.

I've looked at graded examples online and also sometimes see a similar appearance. A good example is this Yount. Not all of them are this noticeable, but it has me stumped. It even has factory fraying similar to other sets.

Anywho - any expertise, opinions, are more than welcome. I just started to branch out to 1970s and of course, the first set I get is giving me fits...

It's kind of a coin flip sometimes. If 99.9% of them are found like the one in your picture, others could still be trim jobs that were 'inspired' by those cuts. So, it's always going to be tough (if not impossible) to tell for sure.

Best get rid of the bothersome ones for those that are straighter.

You'll sleep better.

Sent from my SM-G981U using Tapatalk

The card has tilt, and is also tilted in the holder. I'm not seeing anything I would consider miscut.

Going on my method of holding a straightedge up to the screen (way easier now the screens are all flat... ) The cuts have a slight curve to them.

That does happen and can be from a couple different things.

I collected those back in the day and I do remember cards every now and then having a slight bulge to them. It was irritating then as well. So, yes. That was a thing when they were released.

Truthfully, I don't really see that as a set that someone would go to all the trouble to trim a bunch of them.

That was my logic as well - I was like, would someone actually cut like 700 of these? lol

The only other thought I had was that they were from a sheet and the person cut them, but a majority of them are the same size give or take a MM here and there in either direction.

Thank you everyone for the information - it's stuff like this that makes me love the hobby even more - the idiosyncrasies of each set.

I bought a hand collated one from a vendor case back in 1976...and many were like this also... George Brett card esp... you can never seem to find a good one.

Ricky Y