General Forum

Hello everyone,

   Wondering if anyone has tried/has been successful at flattening curved cards by placing between pages of a heavy book for a day or two? Thanks in advance for any insight on other options!

I have been able to get curved cards to flatten a bit by putting them in a toploader and then under something heavy for a couple days.  This helped with some Topps Chrome cards I had that came out of the pack very curved.

I have been told a few times though that curving in cards is normal and isn't too much of a cause for concern.

Good to know 

Curving doesn't bother me condition-wise since it's so common but boy does it make it a pain to scan cards!

I appreciate the responses

I work at a printing company.  Curving is commonplace because of the moisture in the printing process.  Adding a non-breathable substance to one side enhances the curve.

I would like to get a card graded but it is curved. Will they grade it or consider it too damaged ?  How many points would be taken off just for that alone ? Just wondering if it's even worth getting it graded. Amother option is to just leave it inside a heavy book for as long as it takes. It may have a memory and never stay flat when taken out of the book.

Most of my Kellogg's cards from the '70s and '80s are curved and I place them in binders with an index card inside a penny sleeve within each pocket. The bottom of the sleeve is upside down to prevent them from edging out of the pocket. The index card and the sleeve help straighten out the card.

When I get curved cards, I put them in a penny sleeve, then into my old (1980s) card sleeves (Much like these but a lot stiffer, like hard toploader stiff: https://www.amazon.com/Ultra-Pro-Pocket-Page-Protectors/dp/B005HIOVOG/ref=sr_1_20?_encoding=UTF8&c=ts&keywords=Collectible+Trading+Card+Albums%2C+Cases+%26+Sleeves&qid=1638987632&s=toys-and-games&sr=1-20&ts_id=5374108011) and after a few days' they're pretty flat. If they don't flatten out naturally without any weight, I put my old webster's dictionary on top of the card holders and it works like a charm.

When I started collecting cards as a kid in the 1970s, a couple of card dealers explained that the the cards naturally curved because of the nature of the cardstock. The fronts have that special coating for the photo, and that side always wound up being the convex side, while the backs were always the concave side. This is not a cause for concern.

John, from what I have read on a few sites and spoke with a few other collectors, the major graders do not subtract from cards naturally curving. Once they're slabbed they'll be back to their original shape. I worried about this and everything said don't try to flatten them by book method. 

Living in Louisiana , the sauna of the US, the humidity gives me fits with this, especially on older "chromed" or faced cards. I'm  not sure when/what they changed but most chrome faced from 2005 backwards has curve to it. 2000 Upper Deck Ultimate Victory is perfect example.