General Forum

I have a box of modern cards with condition issues that I donate to local thrift store when it is full.

if vintage, I keep to trade with folks that will accept low condition.

but some of you may not have read Joshua's facebook post....he threw away because he was too tempted to pull out of the recycle box..so all is forgiven, from my end anyway!

mark

Thanks for the backup, Mark.

I'll consider that option, too.

So, here's a sample of what I just encountered in my filtered cards, and frankly it's not the worst, but probably fairly common to the rest. The front is without issues, but the back's got a few white smudges circled in red. What would you do with these? Would you accept them as part of your collection even with a description? Would you be upset if you received them without explanation?

For me, I wouldn't want a card that has 'bricked' and been separated, but with the white spots/color loss that's shown.  I see nothing wrong with lowering the total population of overproduced cards from that era.

Myself, it would depend on the set. I have some sets that I'm trying to build in mint condition. But for my "junk era" sets, if I was told upfront, I'd accept it. 

I recently found some old 1993 Upper Deck packs from my junk era days.  Series 2 with a potential of Jeter!  I was pumped!

Every single pack was bricked.  Except for those all-foil "greats" cards... I think I got Nolan Ryan, Mickey Mantle, and Rickey Henderson, maybe?  Those didn't stick to the others... it's something on the front of those cards that bonds...  So then I ripped open my 1993 factory set... (1) to check for the gold logo - nope, and (2) just to see if I was dealing with bricked cards...  They were OK.

I still have the bricks sitting on top of my shelf.  Haven't had the courage to throw them out yet.  I don't know if I want to pull them apart and potentially see a damaged Jeter, or just toss them and forget about them.  Looking at them every time I sit down at my desk, though, is not the answer!

So I feel your pain, OP, and I commend your bravery!  May we all be so strong!

I threw away 100-200 bricked cards last night.  Threw away probably 10,000 in 2018 . I'm fine when they're junk era. But a bricked factory set of 2002 Topps was pretty depressing.   Almost just quit collecting over that one. I kept them. They're ugly.  But they were a gift.  I wish the site had an additional option/color on the checklist screen for "Have, but needs upgraded ".  That would change my life.  And yes, I've requested it.

Maybe we should encourage people who own unopenned product of sets that are prone to bricking to open & sleeve them? Seems like this is one of the main reasons we're losing so many cards.   If they're not bricked yet, they will be in the future so there doesn't seem to be any value in keeping them unopenned.   

Maybe we keep a record of all sets that are especially prone to bricking.  I've had issues with stadium club sets.

Also, a question, has anyone experienced significant bricking by keeping cards back to back in 9-card binder pages?

I like that "have, but needs upgrade" option. For me, it would help immensely. Through set purchases and trades I get cards that are good fillers, but want to upgrade. I get myself turnaround sometimes on how I enter it in here and what I track on my spreadsheet. 

Those that own unopened factory sets are unlikely to open them just to sleeve the product. They left them unopened so as to maintain the perceived value of the set. From my experience, from 94 to 04 Topps had the UV glossy coating and packed the cards super tight into the box. Every factory set I got from those years had some soret of bricking issue. 94 and 01 were a complete waste and the others needed anywhere from 2-30 cards replaced. Yes, I have thrown away bricked cards; too depressing to keep them as a paperweight.