The Jaundice Is Spreading

I was looking to add a 1994 Bowman’s Best Griffey card to my collection and I came across a seller offering a four card Mariners set (Griffey, Buhner, Pozo and Mac Suzuki) for $2.25 plus an additional $2 shipping, he had two sets available. Here is the actual auction.

 

The Griffey card was my main target but I am always happy to add a Buhner card to my Mariners collection and the price was right. Only the Griffey card was shown but the listing said all cards were averaged NrMt. I received the cards today and all four cards are noticeably discolored, something I would not list as NrMt. Unfortunately chrome, foil and Finest cards are susceptible to damage like this when they are stored together without penny sleeves for an extended time due to the coating. When I pulled these cards from the envelope they were in a penny sleeve together with the Suzuki and Pozo cards stuck together to the back of the Griffey card.

 

Here is the Griffey shown versus the card I received, obviously not the same cards

Posted In Auction

Card I Received

I am upset, had it been listed as “Discolored” or “Damaged” I would have either passed or inquired about the severity of damage. I just emailed the seller to see if he can replace the cards, I am holding off on posting feedback for now. The guy has 100% with nearly 15,000 feedback and I don’t want to ding him if he is willing to replace the cards (at least the Griffey and Buhner cards).

Discolored and yellowing around ear

Discolored and yellowing over entire face

Discolored and yellowing around nose and mouth

My Cards Have Jaundice

As a collector you have some fears and concerns, and rightfully so. Along with the fakes and frauds out there we can also get distressed once the cards are in our hands. Will your cards get damaged or lost when you move, will that high dollar autograph begin to fade over the years or will the foil on a card stick to the card in front of it (or in the penny sleeve) and tear away when I take it out.

I came across a head scratcher today when I was going through my football cards that I have stored in a 5,000 ct. box. In 1994 Collector’s Edge released a new product called Excalibur football set. The set was what you would consider “high end” at the time, they were something like $5-7 a pack. It was a medieval themed set, hence the name “Excalibur”, and along with the base cards there were two inserts (though there were 4 versions of one of the insert sets).

There was the 25-card 22K Knight cards and the 7-card FX acetate cards (There were actually four different FX sets, three could only be collected through redemption while the base FX cards were inserted in to packs). There were also the letters redemption insert cards, but those are what you used to redeem the FX sets.

Today I am going through my 5,000-ct football box and I pulled out my Excalibur FX cards, I have 2 base FX cards and the 7-card Gold EQ Shield FX cards. The two base cards are fine and three of the Gold EQ cards are fine but the acetate on the other four Gold EQ cards has yellowed quite noticeably.  These cards have been kept in either a binder or the 5,000 ct-box for the past 20 years and they have been in penny sleeves the entire time. At no time have the cards been displayed in the sunlight so I am confused as to why the cards have discolored, I am wondering if there is the possibility of a different plastic used during manufacturing.

I put together a comparison of my cards, I left out the Rick Mirer card (which also yellowed) just so I would have an even 6 cards. The top row (Hampton, Bettis and Elway) are all still clear as the day I received them while the bottom row (Smith, Young and Aikman) have all faded and it is not just the clear center section, but the entire card. The interesting thing is that if you look through other 1994 Excalibur FX cards on eBay and COMC you will see quite a few yellow cards so it seems to be a common problem.