General Forum

I just have a random question about printing plates.  I have never pulled one, and I have never actually seen one.  Do printing plates still have some sort of ink on them?  And are they made of metal?  Was just wondering in case I ever pulled one how I would store it.  Would the ink come off onto other cards?

I honestly am not even sure how the printing process even works with printing plates.  

Generally, they don't have ink, just the "burned" pattern for the color it was used for. It is called the offset process. It is also plausible that it get stained when removed from the press.

They are metal, and they do sometimes have remnants of ink on them.

For example:

Normally no but I have one that I pulled out years ago and the ink was still wet and ruined the other cards in the pack.  I have pulled 1 other card where the yellow ink is on the sticker on the back of the card

to your 2nd question usually they have a sticker that says press plate and the color of the press plate with a sticker

i have pulled about 30 of them over the years and still have all the baseball I pulled. I sold all of my football press plates about 3 years ago