Weather effects foils a lot. In colder weather, as things shrink due to physics, foils tend to "wrap" inward on themselves.
Easy ways to fix this are keep your foils inside a warmer area for a time period really heavy books. Conversely, you can just pack them tight inside of a card box with other cards as well. Still keep them in a warmer climate to allow them to expand a bit to bend back into shape better. I always make sure to pack boxes FULL so there is no room for Foils to bend. In my 15 years of collecting, my 15-year-old foils are still flat because of this.
I also would suggest maintaining all foils in sleeves unless you keep a full box. Especially if you prefer double sleeving with KMCs perfect fit clear sleeves and a regular sleeve. The combination of that makes it harder for the foils to warp, although they still can.
Short of making sure that foils are not snug against a flat surface constantly, all foils will bend due due to weather or naturally over time sitting sidewards in boxes.
Also, don't forget that if you *play* with lots of foils, the standard riffle shuffle worsens the problem. It's also why I take curvature of foils into account for over-all wear and value. When I shuffle my own cards, I personally prefer side-shuffling, but I will riffle shuffle both ways (face-down and face-up). That way my cards experience the same bend in both directions to keep them from getting the standard "play bend". Doesn't prevent it or 100% stop curving foils or bent cards, but definitely slows it down or makes it little noticeable.
As far as trading goes, a high curvature of a Foil I would mark as HP (heavy play), or Good Condition. The more flat the card is compared to a high-curved Foil moves back toward Very Good, etc (rest-of-card-condition pending of course too).
Last edited by qasur (2013-03-14 03:16:17)
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