[JustinD]

Originally Posted by RayBShotz

Al - I broke a seal and busted an 86 Topps Tiffany set recently and the cards showed no signs of sticking at all. They were pristine and slid out of the box nicely.

I have honestly not seen too much issue with bricking on Tiffany, the ugly yellowing for sure, but bricking has not been an issue. I wish I could solve the yellowing issues but my solution has been just to not buy any already changing, try to keep out of direct sun, and keep my fingers crossed so far.

I do admit I am very selective about where I buy sealed glossy from and have had fairly good luck. I believe wholeheartedly that bricking is from poor storage conditions. High heat and humidity are the absolute worst for gloss. It causes the gloss to subtly melt and gain a mild viscosity. Then as the cards come back to temp, that gloss rehardens and forms the "glue" sticking these together. This is why I adopted the method mentioned earlier of freezing the cards at least overnight prior to opening as the frozen gloss is far easier to separate.

As to my purchases, I avoid areas that have a likelihood of high heat or humid storage in a non-temp controlled environment. Places like storage units, attics, or garages. No buys in southern climates, I try to buy northern. While this is certainly not foolproof in any way as who knows the travels of those cards in 40 years plus, it has given me better luck.

I would advise any junk wax hoarders in areas like this to make sure their stash is in a ventilated and air conditioned area of your home. If you live in the north and have a basement with no water issues, it is a great place too. I find it a perfect place and have never had bricking. Sadly, my second divorce left a good pile of items in a garage over a summer due to no other option and I had issues with those cards. I was more upset about the junk wax than the wife, lol.