Dinosaur Series 5 card - Backside view

Tea Card . Com

Home Site Map Downloads

Bad Card Condition

Creased Cards Chomped Cards Stained Cards Scuffed Cards Writing on Cards

 
Buncha Bad Cards
This picture shows bad cards... every one is bad and need not be kept..."

What Makes A Good Card and What Makes a BAD Card?

I could bore you with what makes a good card. It's clean and crisp and the back is bright white. It has no blemishes and ... Ooops... I am being boring.

Let's talk bad cards. Folks ask all the time, "What are my cards worth?" I tell them "...before we even get to what the series or variation is, we need to talk condition." Condition makes a big deal? Oh yes it does! Why? Because Red Rose was prolific with their issues. That means they made a lot of them... more than a lot. Which means there are a lot of the cards floating around. Let's face it, a whole bunch of moms and grandmas drank tea and saved the cards for the grandkids. From that we conclude that there are plenty of these cards around (eBay gives a big hint as well). And plenty in great shape. With so many great examples around, that means bad or marginal cards don't have collectability. No one wants the bad stuff when the good cards are so obtainable...

How Many Different Kinds of Bad Are There?

There are more kinds of bad than what I can show you here. But let's take a peek at the different kinds I have gathered for you. These concerns are:
Why bother to track all of these different problem cards? Well it's good to know what's acceptable and what is not. About the only time it's acceptable to keep a damaged card is when the picture side looks perfect and there is some damage only on the description side. Then you can use the cards to paste into albums. The damage won't show and you get cheap fillers that you were going to throw out in the first place.

I offer a strong opinion on the following pages and the opinion is that any damage with Red Rose cards is a reason to dump them. In my many years of collecting, buying and selling, I have never seen anyone accept junk cards except for free... or in a bigger overall package of good and bad cards mixed together.

I have purchased a lot of cards over the years and a lot were claimed to be in excellent shape when some percentage would come to me looking like the cards on these pages. A couple of times included 100% bad cards. I guess it goes with the territory. I don't expect that to change but I do hope this will help explain why bad cards are bad, at least in my opinion.

Last modified: July 12, 2020

 

[ Home ] [ Up ] [ Creases ] [ Chomped ] [ Stained ] [ Scuffed ] [ Writing ]

Send mail to with questions or comments about this web site.