1963 Topps "Bowed" cards. Why?

[savedfrommyspokes]

In recent years, I have bought through ebay a number of vintage card lots from what remained of Renata Galasso's inventory. The cards have all been shipped out of the NY (Brooklyn) area where RG was once headquartered. With these more recent purchases, most all of the cards are "bowed" to some extent or another.


However, back in the early 80s, I purchased multiple bulk vintage lots from RG and I remember there being very little to no bowing to the cards at all. Obviously in the early 80s, RG was moving cards at a much quicker rate so cards did not sit in her inventory as long.

Could the 30+ years that my more recent purchases sat in storage have caused the bowing?...very possible.

[spaidly]

Originally Posted by savedfrommyspokes

In recent years, I have bought through ebay a number of vintage card lots from what remained of Renata Galasso's inventory. The cards have all been shipped out of the NY (Brooklyn) area where RG was once headquartered. With these more recent purchases, most all of the cards are "bowed" to some extent or another.


However, back in the early 80s, I purchased multiple bulk vintage lots from RG and I remember there being very little to no bowing to the cards at all. Obviously in the early 80s, RG was moving cards at a much quicker rate so cards did not sit in her inventory as long.

Could the 30+ years that my more recent purchases sat in storage have caused the bowing?...very possible.

Interesting. The 63s from my childhood would have been 13 years old at the time I acquired them (it was 1976). 13 years is enough time for the bowing to occur. For me, I associate high quality with the bowing as I've never seen mid-grade or lower with this phenomenon. My sample size is too small to make any conclusions though.

Here is a link to the original auction of my new bowed 63s. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-1963...p2047675.l2557

[Jeff Alcorn]

Hi Guys,

Card Collectors Company in New York was one of the biggest dealers in the 1960s-1980s, and they had massive amounts of brand new Topps cards from the 60s & 70s. Somewhere in the late 70s - early 80s they had a fire in their warehouse and thousands upon thousands of cards were water damaged from the sprinklers. The cards show up on ebay generally in lots and they will look pristine except for the warping from the water.

I got a lot of about 100 1963s from a collector in MN that looked perfect in the scan, but when they arrived all the cards were bent and some had dark water stains on them. It is possible that the cards you have just won were from Card Collectors Co., but that does not, of course, explain the general tendency of 1963s to bend somewhat. I once saw a dealer's stock who had bought about 100,000 or so cards from Card Collectors Co. in the early 1980s, and the cards were all warped. He had some of them in huge stacks on a large table and they were all bent in unison. The boxes they had come in (and about the first 25 cards in each stack) all showed dirty water stains on them from the sprinkler water and smoke, but if you saw them from a distance they all looked perfectly mint.

Hope this helps,

Jeff

[spaidly]

Seems the common thread is moisture/humidity. The cards from my childhood predate CCC but the ones I just acquired, who knows? I wonder if TPGs care about this when examining a card. Unless super extreme, I wouldn't think so.

Originally Posted by Jeff Alcorn

Hi Guys,

Card Collectors Company in New York was one of the biggest dealers in the 1960s-1980s, and they had massive amounts of brand new Topps cards from the 60s & 70s. Somewhere in the late 70s - early 80s they had a fire in their warehouse and thousands upon thousands of cards were water damaged from the sprinklers. The cards show up on ebay generally in lots and they will look pristine except for the warping from the water.

I got a lot of about 100 1963s from a collector in MN that looked perfect in the scan, but when they arrived all the cards were bent and some had dark water stains on them. It is possible that the cards you have just won were from Card Collectors Co., but that does not, of course, explain the general tendency of 1963s to bend somewhat. I once saw a dealer's stock who had bought about 100,000 or so cards from Card Collectors Co. in the early 1980s, and the cards were all warped. He had some of them in huge stacks on a large table and they were all bent in unison. The boxes they had come in (and about the first 25 cards in each stack) all showed dirty water stains on them from the sprinkler water and smoke, but if you saw them from a distance they all looked perfectly mint.

Hope this helps,

Jeff