Cards that are a hair small

[nborton]

It's hard to say if 1/32 is trimming or not. I've had cards come from packs seriously miscut. So you know their machinery isn't 100% exact.

I would look closer at the edges, and see if there is any variation between them. That would be more telling in a situation like yours where it's only 1/32 off.

 

[predatorkj]

It's hard to say if 1/32 is trimming or not. I've had cards come from packs seriously miscut. So you know their machinery isn't 100% exact.

I would look closer at the edges, and see if there is any variation between them. That would be more telling in a situation like yours where it's only 1/32 off.

Well either humanly or mechanically, the printed sheets of cards are jogged together(basically bumped together to ensure a straight stack of sheets as opposed to a stack where everything is hanging every which way) and then they are cut. The cutter is set at a predetermined measurement. Now if even one of the sheets is off just a little bit, it results in a miscut. Not for one card either, but the whole row on that one side. If a few sheets are off kilter, we are talking hundreds of cards being miscut. On to quality control...I am not sure how hardcore that is either. All I know is that when my dad did work as a printer(he did so for 30+ years) even though all the printed books and whatnot he cut looked pretty decent, I can verify that they never matched up completely every single time. Most of them were close but it can be very tough to get everything perfect.

Even if the sheets are jogged together correctly, they could be kinda leaning if you know what I mean(imagine a stack of 500 sheets of notebook paper but kinda off kilter where the top does not go straight down in a straight line to the bottom of the stack). Now of course topps probably does see some bad miscuts and throws them away but you can bet if one is miscut then there are more. Its all a matter of QC. I'd love to get a looksee inside their printing factory. I promise you I'd be able to tell you whether or not they have a ton of miscuts they don't catch. And depending on their machinery...I'd also know what kinds of errors it makes. I used to make a ton of money helping my dad. Been around it for a long time.