I need help with 1958 Topps!

[droid714]

I was thinking about sending in a couple of my 1958 Topps football cards to PSA to get graded. Keep in mind that most of the 58's I have are commons; most were purchased back in the 1990's at various card shows and through different online dealers.

I have no reason to suspect that any of them have been trimmed or altered in any way, but after reading the PSA rules that they get to keep your grading fee if, in their opinion, a card has been trimmed or doctored in any other way, I measured them all so I wouldn't get hit with any expensive surprises.

I discovered two things: all of my 58's have identical dimensions and all measure a tiny bit short side-to-side. Since most of the cards were only worth a few dollars when I bought them and since they came from so many different sources, I find it hard to believe that they were all trimmed to the exact same dimensions.

So to verify further, I had a 62 Topps football card that I broke out of a PSA "8" holder and I put it back to back with one of my 58's and they were identical.

So, my question is, it it normal for the 58's (and apparently the 62's) to measure a tiny bit narrow?

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

John

[bobbyw8469]

Sometimes cards might be a little small, yes. I doubt very seriously someone would trim a Lou Groza card, but I could be wrong.

[G1911]

It's unlikely all your 1958's from different sources are trimmed, but it's also very unlikely that they all run just happen to run small. Vintage Topps vary in size a bit, but there are essentially as many that will run slightly big as will run slightly small (that are not trimmed).

This size difference exists even today. Open a pack of 2020 Topps, and look very carefully at cards in a stack. The small size differences are there, and discernible without magnification.

More helpful than pure size (unless it's really short) is to examine the edges for other evidence of trimming (uneven cut, a flared corner, slightly brighter card stock on one edge than normally seen in that issue and on other edges can be a sign of more recent trimming). Posting a scan of some of the cards might help, though others here are far better at spotting trim jobs.