Starting
with 1995 Finest, Topps decided to put a
protective coating sticker over the front surface of the card. What reason you
ask? For no reason I answer. The Ultra Violet coating that had been applied to
premium cards when not fully dried had tended to make the card stick together.
Instead of drying the cards properly Topps decided to apply a sticker.
Now the
purist will tell you that the sticker is now part of the card but the practical
collector will tell you that the sticker is nothing more than part of the pack
– an individual wrapper.
When it
comes to grading it is best to remove the sticker because BGS and PSA will
consider the sticker part of the surface. The problem with that is that the
stickers then to be filled with minor air bubbles.
The other
reason to remove is in terms of value. The (eBay) market has not put any
premium on cards with peel intact.
About The
Card
This 1995
Finest Cal Ripken is the same card with the peel and without. I will be subbing
this in the future. It appears to be in Gem Mint Condition.
I used to peel them all, and then reapply them to different cards and make "error" cards...like trading a finest one for a leaf limited one...i was a strange kid. it used to be that there was a 20% premium on unpeeled cards (1996 or so), what changed?
ReplyDeleteThere could be a premium at shows or in stores but I looked on eBay at completed sales and I didn't see a notable difference. BGS slabs do not differentiate if the peel is on or not. PSA does but since BGS has the lion share of the modern card market it hasn't compelled anyone to pay more. Also if you look at Check Out My Cards.com in raw condition there is no difference for peel or not. Looking back it just seems like a gimmick.
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