[oneofakindcards]

Ok, then what you're saying is: if you buy a new car, do you leave the price sheet on the window. If you take it off, then is the car "not in factory-released condition when peeled"? I'm sorry, for the life of me I cannot understand why there is such a fuss for removing the film.

The good news is that peeled cards can be had at a discount.

[bengalsandreds]

either way,
I'd be careful with peeling , especially if you bought it on the secondary market and don't know how it was stored. The adhesive on those peels weren't meant to be kept on long term and if it's been exposed to heat, peeling it off could actually just expose a really damaged card surface.

I love it when Quinton McCracken and JT Snow make an appearance on the forums....

[Jquinn83]

If I remember correctly wasn't there a parallel set of cards without the protector? If so how do you distinguish it from a peeled card? It was a bad idea by Topps to put the film on there. The existence of the unprotected parallel set would suggest that they intended the protector to stay on.

[zeprock]

If I remember correctly wasn't there a parallel set of cards without the protector? If so how do you distinguish it from a peeled card? It was a bad idea by Topps to put the film on there. The existence of the unprotected parallel set would suggest that they intended the protector to stay on.

In 1998 Topps issued a Finest No Protector parallel. It is distinguishable from a peeled Finest because the back has a different look to it. The back looks, for lack of a better word, more "polished".