General Curved Foil Cards

Velrun

Velrun

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Most of you probably already know this. Recent sets have had an issue with curled/bend cards. Especially the foil ones. See the picture for reference. Here are the tips and tricks I have learned so far to avoid these issues for my cube.

There are two types of curves: Convex and Concave.

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Convex: The face of the card is curved in a way where the center of the card is closer to your eyes than the borders of the card. A Convex curved cards needs higher humidity in order to return to normal flat.

Concave: The face of the card is curved in a way where the center of the card is further away from your eyes than the borders of the card. A Concave curved cards needs less humidity in order to return to normal flat.

There are several ways to remove humidity from your concave curved cards. One is an expensive super solution called a dehumidifier which is a machine that operates on electricity and removes humidity from the air in its surroundings. Another way are the cheap Silica bags that works excellent but needs to be changed every now and then.

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When trading or buying cards from other players I ask for confirmation that the cards (especially the foil ones) are not curved and I ask for picture to evaluate the cards myself. Beforehand it was enough to check for that ‘Near mint’ or ‘NM’ condition but now we need an additional scale to evaluate cards from: Curved or not. If you ask for a picture before buying, you will know for certain if the cards are bend or not. In my experience the cards that are not bend when they are opened, will never bend.

I hope you can use my experiences to avoid getting curved cards yourself.
 
shamizy

shamizy

Good idea for this post, I was actually going to forward this post I had seen a while back to forward to a friend. Just one small adjustment I'd make. A humidifier actually puts more moisture INTO the air, thus adding humidity to your surroundings. This is important depending on the type of curve you're trying to correct as adding humidity to the wrong cards won't actually fix anything. Up the moisture content for convex cards to flatten down the middle, remove the moisture content from concave cards to flatten the sides.

And to add further information to your post, the reason why this happens is that the paper layer and foil layer on the card interact very differently with changes in humidity. Foil is unaffected, but paper expands and contracts depending on the moisture level in the surrounding environment, thus leading to these issues in recent sets where quality control hasn't been as high for "premium" products.

Anyway, a convex card can be fixed either by double-sleeving it and sticking it in a binder for a LONG while where it will slowly acclimate to your humidity and return to normal. A much quicker way to complete this process is to run a humidifier on low for a few minutes, aim the moisture stream in the general vicinity of your card (like say on a low hanging shelf or small table), and then check in on it every few minutes. This boost in immediate humidity will expedite the process and allow the paper layer to absorb moisture very quickly and return it to a relatively flat state. Be careful not to let it hang out for too long; eventually the moisture will pool and you'll have to dry it out somehow if it's too wet.

The alternative, for concave cards, would be to use silica packs for long term storage or get a quick blast with something like a space heater on a high setting to remove moisture and flatten your card. Don't hold it out for too long, maybe 10-15 seconds and you should be good.

I've used the humidifier trick to flatten out a lot of CMDR Legends product which was some of the most curled foiling I'd ever seen, but it was a super easy fix with a humidifier and took me maybe 15 minutes of on and off experimenting on different moisture settings to lock it down. Wiped down the cards once they had absorbed enough moisture and became relatively flat before double-sleeving them and sticking them in a binder overnight. By the next day they were completely fine and they've been flat ever since in my CMDR decks. Also had to use a heat for a quick fix when I left a test card out for too long and it got a bit soggy (and a bubble crept up under the foil layer), but holding it in front of my space heater corrected that real quick.

It sucks that we have to take these measures into our hands nowadays to fix such a simple issue that should have been addressed by now, but thankfully it's not as complicated as one would think.
 
Velrun

Velrun

I am of the personal opinion that Wizards actually DO want to fix this. And they started the process fairly fast. However by the time the world experienced the Commander Legends issues with foils and non-foils, the Kaldheim cards had already been produced months ago. And probably Strixhaven too. I bet we will experience a difference in the card treatment again during the Innistrad sets or maybe in 2022. Wizards work years ahead of the playerbase and will as such change slowly and not like a hotfix to a game available on Steam.

Edit it sucks that you guys can’t see the uploaded pictures.
 
sigh

sigh

We can see them by clicking on the picture titles. It opens them in a separate window. Obviously would be more streamlined to see them built into the post, but they are still viewable.

I appreciated the little pyramid of curved cards.
 
Mondschwein

Mondschwein

Onderzeeboot said:
My easy solution to this problem has been the same since 1999: don't buy foils :D
Click to expand...

Yeah I never did since 2019 when I boghut a lot of old frame basic lands in foil for a few hundred euros because I'm in love with old frame basics and wanted them special versions. Now I got back to 'foils look shitty' and think that I'll sell them in the near future.
 
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