Laminated! Noooooo!
 

I was on "The 'Bay" this morning and one of my saved searches brought up this awesome trade agreement for the 1952 Tigers swap of Dizzy Trout, Johnny Lipon and Hoot Evers to Boston Red Sox in exchange for Bill Wight, Walt Dropo, Fred Hatfield, Johnny Pesky and Don Lenhardt signed by Gehringer.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1952-major-...16.m2518.l4276

I would have very possibly grabbed it as it fits my collection. However...it's laminated!!!!

I know that in the late 80's people thought this massacre was a good idea. I consider it the same as burning it.

Does anyone have laminated items in your collection and how does it not trigger every bone of OCD and frustration?

I would have no problem overlooking the lamination. Way too cool to let that get in the way. And no OCD here when it comes to things along these lines. Better to have then to have not.

my .02.

B. T.

+1 Does not matter

I definitely have the OCD and the lamination would bug me a lot.

It's very similar to signed baseballs that have been shellacked. I have passed on so many otherwise great autographed balls because someone back in the day shellacked the ball in an ill-advised attempt to preserve the sigs.

Often the shellac will turn dark brown or peel/flake off (frequently taking the signatures with it). Even if a shellacked ball looks decent today, there is the threat of future degradation.

I would assume that lamination remains clearer and doesn't turn brown with time. But it severely compromises the originality of the piece and I would assume it's irreversible.

It's making me quite happy that there are some of you enjoying these and they are not lost to time due to the lamination.

For myself, it's just falling in the realm of a sticker auto on a card and the inability to touch the same item as the signer makes it fall out of my wheelhouse. I don't like that I can't touch the history forever incased in the laminate.

Love the feedback!

I have a baseball broadside from the late 1800's that I ended up laminating; mostly because the paper was disintegrating.
It still displays ok.
That would be my last resort though.

I was just about to say this....As an avid 68/84 Tigers and 89/90 Pistons auto collector...it drives me nuts when I see a JSA or PSA sticker adhered to a card...

no idea why anyone would do this...on any original item...

that being said if I needed something for a collection that I wasn't sure I would see again I would grab it...and then replace it if an unaltered one came my way...I have foreign stickers in my PC for Isiah that there are no known unstuck versions...so I get the one attached to the album and wait until I see an unstuck version...doubt I ill though.

for common items like cards for a modern set and such..I am also against fillers and placeholders..buy one that fits your needs...don't mess with upgrading commonly had items...but that's just me

If that was in my collecting wheelhouse, I woulda done grabbed it quick, because that would be epically cool to have, lamination or not.

I wish it was laminated but it is an amazing piece

No chance lamination can be undone somehow?

No, laminating is done with heat. The plastic melts and impregnates the paper.

Sounds like they need to develop a 'Plan B One-Step for Lamination' pill.

People use the OCD term within the collecting universe often but it's a terrible disease..

Yes, many of us (myself included) use it facetiously or loosely, but is a terribly debilitating condition if you've seen it first hand or experienced it.

Yes, I have a laminated Zeenut with coupon. I was so happy about seeing it pop in a saved search that I instantly bought it. (At least twice I've missed out on something at 7am as I'm seeing a saved searches email and some rascal out there (probably here) buys it while I'm reading about it.

Anyway, the Zeenut arrives, and it's laminated. I look at the listing, and it clearly says laminated... so I've kept it. my only Zeenut with a coupon... I'ts like a war scar, an object lesson. In hindsight, if I'd seen LAMINATED I would not have bought it. So yes, all of the bones of OCD and frustration are rattling, and I realize I have only myself to blame. And for those of you that think it doesn't matter, wanna buy a Zeenut with coupon still attached?

Theoretically if you pray hard enough.

I have never been laminated, but have heard many horror stories from cards who have been. Plastic impregnating paper definitely seems like an unpleasant experience that should be avoided, and the resulting 'offspring' is likely to be shunned for the rest of his/her existence.

Brian

Actually, impregnated paper produces reams of offspring!!!!!

Nice!

Brian

Laminating can occasionally be undone, but it's more than a little risky.

If the temp was too low, and/or if it was done to a stock that doesn't absorb the plastic well, heating it back up and removing the plastic can be undone.

The laminator at school was finicky, and some teachers were just bad at laminating, trying to straighten a crookedly fed piece. I got pretty good at saving their stuff. But "pretty good" means I could save maybe half the wrecked stuff, when the other kids could only get maybe 10%
Probably too risky for anything worth any real money.

I have a couple of FDR autographed letters (one as Governor, one as President) which the original recipient laminated to wood backings in the 1940's and hung on their wall. Just wish they would have framed them instead. A great deal of FDR's correspondence was secretarially signed, but these ones weren't. I found them at a country auction as a kid, thrown together with a bunch of worthless frames. Paid $12 each and went into it knowing they were unsalvageable. Still a great find for any youngster.

Justin I have a couple of laminated items, one that I personally did in the late 1980's! My biggest concern is: was the lamination well done? Is it pealing, has it yellowed, are there air bubbles?

One can still confirm the authenticity of a document in most cases and as long as it presents well, I'm happy. Of course, the value takes a hit, and rightly so. But for something that was done well, I don't mind at all.

Wouldn't bother me personally.

Here is my 1948 Bowman of Ralph Kiner, laminated version. Over the years I have learned to accept it as being no different from any of my other, non-laminated, cardboard children.

Brian

thanks for bringing this item up, i just made an offer that was accepted, I've never owned anything laminated so I can't speak to that aspect yet but its a really cool piece of baseball history as a Red Sox fan.

It looks like its signed by Cronin and Gehringer as far as I can tell which is awesome.