1948-1952 Bowman trimming problem??

[toppcat]

It would seem that for every short card there should be a corresponding long card - call it Newton's fourth law. Where are the longer cut Bowman's if there are so many short ones?

[steve B]

Originally Posted by toppcat

It would seem that for every short card there should be a corresponding long card - call it Newton's fourth law. Where are the longer cut Bowman's if there are so many short ones?

You'd think so, but no. That's not how the equipment works.

The cutter has a fence at the back that's moved to a position, then a stack of sheets is pushed against it. When it's lined up right and stacked properly, the operator pushes the two cut buttons and first a pressure plate clamps the stack, then the cutting blade slices through.

Typically a sheet would have the edges removed first, then be cut into more manageable portions if it's large. Then those smaller portions are cut into strips and then individual cards. If the fence isn't in the right spot, all the cards in that stack will be short or narrow. (Or long or wide) The exact order might vary, like cutting into smaller sections before removing the edges.

1/8 is pretty far off, 1/32 I think was the old allowance. I believe the companies err on the side of caution. If the edge doesn't appear quite right, they reject it. At least SGC does, two of my three rejected cards were undersize, or had factory cuts that were rougher than normal. Since I didn't have them slabbed I got the explanation ticket rather than a simple "A". (The other was trimmed, and I shouldn't have bothered sending it. )

Steve B

[Paul S]

Here is an Adcock where you can see that the cutter caught part of the adjacent card at the left border. What has me scratching my head is why in the world would Bowman lay out a sheet like that, and not just put like-color TV sets next to each other? All my 55s are raw -- I swear I could stack them and every other card would be either short or long the as compared to the others.

[glynparson]

are all over the place, using a ruler to determine if a card is trimmed is useless. learn what uncut/factory cut edges look like under magnification, also the feel is different between a recently trimmed card and one from factory. You can also often tell by looking down on the card and learning what typical cuts and borders look like. Rulers have no use if you want to determine trimmed or factory cut on vintage Bowmans

[judgebuck]

A couple of years ago, i bought a large collection of 1955 Bowmans that were bought by the owner when he was a child. There were many, many that were cut short at the factory.

[marvymelvin]

So back to my question, what about TPG's psa sgc etc.? Should they not acknowledge this? I am tired of getting back cards that are not trimmed as "A". Someone pointed out that they look at the edges as well, but still getting back legit cards graded as trimmed!!

[savedfrommyspokes]

Brad, not to come across too harshly, but if you are intending on building these 48-55 Bowman sets with TPG cards, you may be better off building these sets from cards already graded cards as the opinion as to what is a factory cutting error versus a trimmed card obviously varies within each TPG. I completely understand your frustration with the cards being returned with an "A" rating on seemingly solid cards....with the added costs of having these "A" cards coming back to you, you would be better off deciding to build either a raw set or TPG set with previously graded cards to avoid the costs of non-yielding submissions.

[the 'stache]

Originally Posted by glynparson

are all over the place, using a ruler to determine if a card is trimmed is useless. learn what uncut/factory cut edges look like under magnification, also the feel is different between a recently trimmed card and one from factory. You can also often tell by looking down on the card and learning what typical cuts and borders look like. Rulers have no use if you want to determine trimmed or factory cut on vintage Bowmans

Glyn said pretty much exactly what I was going to say. Get yourself a nice loupe, 10x, if you don't already have one. Compare the card in question to another card from the same set that you know has not been altered. Their edge cuts should look the same. If something's been trimmed, it will look quite different, I assure you.