So You Dont Have To Experiment #7- Sticker Autographs

Just because I am not posting does not mean that I have things rattling around in my head that are post worthy. I had put together a “So You Don’t Have To” video and uploaded it to YouTube and I meant to post it last week but didn’t get around to it.

In this episode of SYDHT, I removed a Herb Dean sticker autograph from a 2010 Upper Deck World of Sports Athletes of the World card and placed it on to a 2009 Topps UFC Round 1 Herb Dean card. The reason I decided to try this is because 2010 UD World of Sports release was a sticker dump and there were no images on the card, so a boring card, while the 2009 Topps card is a nice-looking card of Dean.

I chose Herb Dean because I already had both cards in my MMA collection plus I didn’t think anyone would get upset about me doing this. I will note, this card will remain in my collection and never be sold.

So You Don't Have To Experiment #1b- Worm Food Follow Up

Today is my 47^th birthday, which means the So You Don’t Have To Experiment #1b is complete.

This year’s experiment donor cards were a 2013 Topps Chrome Richard Sherman and a 2017 Panini Prizm Eddie Lacy. The Prizm/Lacy card was buried 3 inches down and the Topps Chrome/Sherman was buried 6 inches down. In the past 365 days we hit temperatures up to 104 degrees and lows down to 6 degrees. We had close to 3 feet of snow over a one-month period and last July we had something like 20 days of rain, so there were times that my back yard was flooded.

 

Let’s get to the cards. I expected the cards to fair better than last year’s junk wax, and they did. The front of the cards, besides some scratches, scuffs and a crease here and there, came out still identifiable. The backs are where the damage was most visible.  In additional to staining, the adhesive on the back of both cards started to give away. Both backs did fall off when I cleaned the cards up. 

 

OK, not exactly a gradable card with most companies, but easily a GAI 9.5 or PRO 10.

So You Don't Have To Experiment #6- Flooded Cards

This month, so you don’t have to, I placed graded cards under water to see how they would fair. I placed 8 graded cards in a pail and held the cards down with rocks and left them there for a week. I cracked the cases for each card and recorded it all.

There were 2 Beckett (BGS), 5 PSA and an SGC. In the end 6 of the 8 cases protected the cards from the water while the other two, a PSA and the SGC, failed. After I finished the video I cracked the final two PSA cases and neither had water damage.

So You Don't Have To Experiment- Restoring A Sketch Card

 Last night I played Devil’s Advocate and so you don’t have to, I retouched a damaged sketch card. The card is one of my favorite Star Wars characters Salacious Crumb, I really like a lot of the alien creatures in the series, and it was drawn by the artist Amy Pronovost.

I chose this card to retouch for two reasons, a character I like, and it was damaged. I saw a similar card last year and that is what got me thinking about doing this from my So You Don’t Have To serial. Obviously, some sort of roller went across the surface, I am guessing during sorting or pack out since it is almost the same type of smudging I saw on the other card so it has happened more than once. 

So you don’t have to, I went through and attempted to clean up the damage and reline where possible. I did not add or remove any lines, I followed (as best as possible) Amy’s original line work and only wanted to make it presentable again. In my eyes, the card has been altered (by machinery and me) and I will not let this card leave my collection. 

I will not be restoring any of Vincent van Gogh's paintings soon but the finalized card, below, is presentable as the original artist intended it to be. More work could be done on minute details, like the text at the top, but I was beginning to remove some of the original background color on the card so I stopped. 

So You Don't Have To Experiment #1b- Worm Food II

Last year I buried junk wax era cards and it got me wondering what modern chrome style cards would look like after one year underground. I am following the same exact experiment with the hole in the same location (southeast wall) with one card at 3-inches down and one card at 6-inches down. 

For this experiment I am using a 2017 Panini Prizm Eddie Lacy and a 2013 Topps Chrome Richard Sherman. I was not too worried about using the same cards this time because the Chrome and Prizm cards use the same technology even with a couple of years difference. I just wanted to use each company to see how their technology would do underground. 

The Prizm Eddie Lacy is at 3-inches down and the Topps Chrome Richard Sherman is 6-inches down. This is the last view of the guys until my 47^th birthday next year, May 30, 2019.

So You Don't Have To Experiment #1- Worm Food Follow Up

Last year I came up with the idea of doing a segment called “So You Don’t Have To” experiments with the intention of doing various things with my collection to show what would happen. My first experiment was suggested by Fuji, bury junk wax era cards in dirt to see how they would fair.

I buried three 1990 Bowman Mike Boddicker card in my yard on my 45th birthday last year and left them underground for one year. Over the past 365 days the temperatures hit a low of 14 degrees and a high of 104 degrees, we had rain (the backyard did get flooded at times), snow, hail and plenty of sunshine. There were three major brush fires during that time and smoke and ash was around, not that I would think that would do anything additional to the cards.

Today is my 46th birthday, so like Geraldo Rivera and Al Capone’s vault, I went digging to see what treasure would be awaiting me. 

The cards were placed at 3 inches deep and 6 inches deep, so I slowly removed the dirt, stopping to take a picture when I saw the first bit of cardboard gold, a small piece of blue as I closed in on the 3-inch part of the hole (Inside the red square in the image below).

What I found (or lack of what I found) was a complete surprise. In the end I found less than 10 small pieces of the card with the largest being about 1.5 inches long. This was in the 3-inch deep portion of the hole, I found nothing of the other two cards that were buried 6-inches down.

Turn in tomorrow for a continuation of this experiment.

So You Don't Have To Follow Up

I completed the month of October without making any card purchases and I kept a list of the cards that I would have bought/bid on had it been a normal month. This year I have been on a tight budget, so I based this experiment on how I would have shopped in 2016 when I was not on a similar budget. 

The only card that I considered breaking the rules for the month and actually bidding on was the 2012 Topps Under Armour Trey Griffey autograph but I would have topped no more than $15 and the price on the card went up so fast I didn't even bid.

Here is the list of cards that would have been in my collection and the cards final costs. The only card that really hurt was the 1996-97 Allen Iverson rookie, I have wanted one for years and that price was a steal.

10/1- 1996-97 Topps Chrome Allen Iverson #171 BGS 8.5 $17.66

10/5- American Horror Story Set of 4 Optispex $39.99

10/7- 1987 Rosem Night of the Living Dead 50 Card Set $7.95

10/12- 1988 Donruss book (hand cut) NY Yankees Jay Buhner $7.95

10/15- 2015 NECA Marvel Rocket Raccoon Hubsnaps $0.99

10/20- Ben Simmons lot $2.29

I ended up saving $76.83, not counting shipping, by not purchasing any cards. 

So You Don't Have To Experiment #4- The No Buy Zone

I have been reading stories about people working on clearing their debt and one thing that always comes up is stop using money to buy non-essentials. With most people, this is heading to a coffee joint instead of making it at home or stopping by Chipotle for lunch but with me it is buying cards. I haven’t spent a lot on cards this year but when you tally up the cards I have purchased for a dollar here and a pack there it does add up.

My medical debt has begun to creep up again because I have met a number of new doctors over the past few months and they all want to run various tests that relate to their specialty and tests like MRIs, X-rays and blood tests add up fast, my co-pay for an MRI I had two weeks ago was $175 and I have another MRI for my knees and hips that I will be doing in December or January.

So as part of my So You Don't Have To experiments, for the month of October I will not purchase anything outside of those things necessary; food, medical/medicine, gas, bills, etc. Not a penny will go to my collection, which will be difficult because I enjoy searching eBay and COMC daily. I will continue to sell cards on eBay but any money from those sales will remain in Paypal

To determine how much I will save, each time I find a card that I would normally bid on I will move that much money over to my savings account. Since this year has been slow in purchases, I bought only 3 cards in September, I will determine the amount as if I really wanted to purchase the card and ignore my circumstance of paying off medical bills. 

I am certain that by Halloween I will be jonesing for new cardboard.

So You Don't Have To Experiment #3- Crack That Case

This month I am cracking cards out of their graded cases. I have done this before but I did not record it so I recorded it this time to share my experience right down to cutting my finger on the edge of a BGS case, don’t’ worry I don’t show it. I cracked three cards from their cases, one Beckett case and two PSA cases. I had initially planned on cracking an SGC case too but I realized as I was pulling my supplies together that I only have one SGC case and it contains an 1888 Allen & Ginter's card so I did not want to remove that card.

Not the best video, I am still trying to figure the best angle to record from as well as working on how to edit videos but I will get there eventually.

So You Don't Have To Experiment #2- Get That Paper Outta Here

This month I decided to skin some chrome cards to see what is hidden beneath that shiny surface. I did skin a Bowman Chrome and a Topps Chrome about a month ago in response to a thread on Blowout Forums where someone posted images of a prototype card that they had that was based on the 2014 Bowman Chrome Daniel McGrath card only acetate and instead of listing his specific position (Pitcher) it just said “Position”.

A couple of people were claiming it was a manipulated Bowman Chrome card so I decided to try to see if I came up with the same thing as far as being clear. As you can see with this experiment that is not the case, the card backs are mirrored and not clear so obviously the card the OP posted about was not a manipulated Bowman Chrome card. The OP did contact Topps, got an “I don’t know answer” and they did submit it to BGS for grading. As of May16^th there has not been an update as to the cards origins. I am guessing it was an early prototype.

I did the same procedure as before with placing two cards face back down in to water. The donor cards this time are a 2013 Bowman Chrome Brandon Maurer and a 2013 Panini Prizm Percy Harvin. I left the cards in the water for 16 hours, dried them off and removed the backs as best I could.

Since the paper attached to the adhesive is a bit difficult I placed the cards back in to the water, again backs down. After 4 hours I removed the cards, dried them off and then removed the paper I could get off. I did place the cards back in to the water overnight to separate the remaining paper, removed them from the water, dried them off and completed the experiment.

After soaking in the water for 16 hours first, then 4 hours and finally 12 hours I could completely remove all of the paper from the Bowman Chrome but the adhesive on the Panini Prizm card did not dissolve enough and I could not remove any additional paper from the back. Either Panini uses a different adhesive or the way they apply it makes it stick better to the card. I did accidently bend the Bowman Chrome while drying it off, that is why it appears to have a black smudge across the top half of the card in the final photo. That is my monitor reflecting off of the card when I took the picture, that black mark is not on the card.

If you have any more ideas of things I can do so you don't have to I would love to hear them. Check out my initial post that includes the list of things I will be doing and feel free to leave a comment if you have something else you would like added.

So You Don't Have To Experiment #1- Worm Food

Today I start my “So you don’t have to” series and I am beginning with the one that will take the longest to accomplish so it will be first. I chose today because it is my 45^th Birthday today so it will be easy for me to remember the end date of the experiment.

The first experiment comes from Fuji who wondered if all of the commons from the beginning of the junk wax era that he donated to Goodwill would have been better as worm compost. We will have to wait one year but we will finally have our answer on May 30, 2018.

Fuji specifically mentioned 1988 and 1989 Topps but after doing studies of the local environment, the weather patterns and local indigenous plant life and wildlife in Northern Arizona I took in to consideration the composition of the cardboard that Topps was using in 1988 and 1989 I came up with a decision to instead use cards from the 1990 Bowman baseball release. No, just kidding, actually I just happened to have three 1990 Bowman Mike Boddicker cards and since they are similar to the ’88 and ’89 Topps cards they became the donor cards for this experiment.

I dug an elongated hole along the southeast wall in my backyard, one half of the hole is three inches down and the other half of the hole is six inches down. This section is open to the sun and elements and is clear of vegetation. I placed a card flat at three inches and one card flat at six inches with the third card between them standing up so the bottom of the card is at six inches and the top at three inches.

Where the cards are buried they will encounter air temperatures that range from around 10-15 degrees during the winter to 100-105 degrees during the summer. There will be rain, snow and high winds as well as small animals and birds. I don’t expect the animals will affect the cards but they may in some way that I don’t see happening so I wanted to include them in the list.

We will see the Boddicker triplets next spring.

If you have any more ideas of things I can do so you don't have to I would love to hear them. Check out my initial post that includes the list of things I will be doing and feel free to leave a comment if you have something else you would like added.

Anymore Ideas Of What I Can Do So You Don't Have To?

The list that I have put together for my “So you don’t have to” posts is up to 14 items, including the three from this past weekend. I am excited about this because there are things I have wanted to do to cards and now I have a reason to do them. I am setting parameters for each experiment because I want them to be easily replicated if anyone else wants to give it a try.

Most will take minutes or maybe a day to accomplish but there is one that will take time, that is Fuji’s suggestion about finding out if junk wax can be turned in to worm compost. I have begun the process setting up this experiment, I plan to make this a one year project which I will be starting next week.

If anyone has any more suggestions just let me know, I would love to add more items to the list. The list may be altered a bit here and there, some are nearly the same so I may just include them in one experiment. Here is what I have so far:

Burn a chrome card
Create sketch card
Create a collage

Create a custom card

Create multi-layer card/3D

Place a card in bike spokes

Place a card out in the environment for 1 year

Remove auto sticker

Place removed sticker

Remove a card from graded case

Remove a manufactured patch from a card

Remove a medallion from a card
Separate base cards (split layers)

Separate a jersey card

Separate a patch card

Skin a chrome card

Skin a Prizm
Submerge base cards in bleach
Submerge graded cards in water

What Can I Do So You Don't Have To?

The other day I did something to a card I had never considered before just to see what would happen, more on this in a future post, and it got me wondering if there was anything else that I could do that I had never considered doing before.

I have come up with a short list of things I plan on doing so you don’t have to do it but I would like some input to add to the list. A couple of things on the list include skinning certain types of cards and removing an autograph sticker. 

Question: What is something you would like to see done to a card but have never done?