1949 Bowman - trimmed or not? how do you tell?

[thisbaseballcardlife]

So I just bought this card raw off eBay for $12.50

When I looked the card over the first time, in hand, I thought the top of the card looked really "too straight" for a 71 year old card.

Could it have been trimmed? How can you tell?

Could it be a completely "fake" card?

Any tips?

Am I crazy?

Ok too many questions, Mike!

This is my first ever 49 bowman card.

I do want to send this card in to be graded. (PSA)

This card belongs to a PSA registry I am working on.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[chalupacollects]

49 Bowmans measure 2 1/16 by 2 1/2. So yours is fine... Nice card!

[swarmee]

AFAIK, some edges at the Bowman factories were cut with blades and some were cut with wires, which explains the sharp edge at the top and the rough cuts on the side. I know when we were talking about trimming last year, there were some more knowledgeable people about the process that were mocking PSA for grading some of these cards with all four having straight borders. The grading company should understand the printing standards for these sets, so that they can expect the proper edge features. Otherwise they are less useful at detecting trimming/alterations or ones cut from sheets.

[steve B]

Originally Posted by swarmee

AFAIK, some edges at the Bowman factories were cut with blades and some were cut with wires, which explains the sharp edge at the top and the rough cuts on the side. I know when we were talking about trimming last year, there were some more knowledgeable people about the process that were mocking PSA for grading some of these cards with all four having straight borders. The grading company should understand the printing standards for these sets, so that they can expect the proper edge features. Otherwise they are less useful at detecting trimming/alterations or ones cut from sheets.

I've come to have doubts about any cards being cut with wires. I've looked occasionally for a cutter or press attachment that uses wires to cut and haven't found one.
It's possible, but some of this stuff lasts a very long time, and even if the machine has become obsolete the wire should be available. And I can't find that either.

[swarmee]

Originally Posted by steve B

I've come to have doubts about any cards being cut with wires. I've looked occasionally for a cutter or press attachment that uses wires to cut and haven't found one.
It's possible, but some of this stuff lasts a very long time, and even if the machine has become obsolete the wire should be available. And I can't find that either.

I've heard that mainly when discussing 1970s O-pee-chee cards that they used a wire to cut edges. Have you looked into the OPC factories?

[steve B]

Originally Posted by swarmee

I've heard that mainly when discussing 1970s O-pee-chee cards that they used a wire to cut edges. Have you looked into the OPC factories?

Searches on google for the cutters or the wires. I doubt there would be much for factory pics.

I've also heard it about OPC, so it might be worth a try anyway.

The knives in a regular cutter can do that if they're getting dull. They crush the paper a bit. It's not really noticeable on paper, but on cardstock it would be.

[samosa4u]

Steve is correct. The O-Pee-Chee cards are found with rough edges due to worn-out blades. They were never cut with wires!