Impact of gumstains on value

[Volod]

Originally Posted by swarmee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l99b-M0KySQ&t=287s

This one was a travesty. You win some, you lose some.

I don't think any kid opening a pack in 1955 would have encountered a "stain" of that kind. The back of that Conlon card, and maybe the next one - Ted Gray to some extent, were heavily stained, but the other seven cards appeared to be unblemished. So, the gum oil only managed to penetrate the top two cards over the course of 60-plus years. I imagine Topps was also in the practice of inserting the gum slab on the top (obverse) side of the cards, which would strongly suggest that the stains on the reverse side almost always came from wax, not gum. But, if the wax wrappers tended to stain the back of the bottom card, wouldn't that indicate that wax staining only appears on 20% or fewer of all cards from the period? It is questions of this enormity that I appeciate for taking my mind off of world events.