Talk about foil bend in Lotr tcg and ideas on how to manage it.

[Finisterle]

Foil Lord of the rings cards can be and often are beautiful. My personal favorite is Arwen Queen of Elves and Men.

But foil cards bend in on themselves, even though cards from some sets seem a bit more rigid and when they do they stop being nice to look at.

How can you manage foil bend - and should you at all ?

[Air Power]

I've kept my foils in binder pages since I opened them (pre-2008).  The have slight bend (esp. TT foils) but are no where near as bad as my SWCCG foils.  I could put my LOTR foils in a deck with non-foils without considering the foils "marked", which I couldn't do with the SWCCG foils.

I have recently tried alternating the orientation of my SWCCG foils so they face ()()()()()() in the box.  I'll post if it works.

Another idea I've not tried is loading all the foils in top-loaders.

[FM]

Top loaders go a long way in stopping the bending, but it'll just happen when you play with them some time. A way to fix that is to get hold of a good 3-4 books, heavy volumes, and simply lay the foils under them (I do this when Ihave a MtG tournament and need to, for example, use Ajani Vengeant, which I only have the foil pre-release versions) for about 2-3 days.

[macheteman]

three words: "war and peace"

[Finisterle]

Ergo: most people seem to be slaves to the annoying foil bend.

I use a technique that could be called symmetric counter bending.

But since it can ruin the card and doesn't offer any permanent solution (the foil bend always comes back) I won't describe it in detail.

[Jerba]

When I lived in the American West with low or non-existent humidity I never had trouble foil bending. However, when I moved east the foils started bending. I say its a humidity problem. 

[Finisterle]

When I lived in the American West with low or non-existent humidity I never had trouble foil bending. However, when I moved east the foils started bending. I say its a humidity problem.  

This is the textbook answer for what causes foil bending. Some also say that heat and cold - which expands the foil side and contracts it respectively are causes.

Humidity: foil card bends inwards // because the non foiled back absorbs mositure

Heat: foil card "should" bend outwards // because the foil expands.

However: do not fool around with heat and cold since you don't really have any control over how the foil will expand and contract. That sort of control would be difficult even in a laboratory.

[Narij]

Living in a desert, I do not have issues with humidity, but heat on the other hand...

I think part of the issue is the card stock.  Sets all the way through Mount Doom suffer far less from heat (or humidity, based on my East Coast friend) but as soon as you see a Shadows+ foil, the bend is ridiculous.  Yes an 80 degree room may cause the card to bend, but not overnight.

[macheteman]

hey, who thumbs-downed the "war and peace" thats the best book for flattening out foils before a tournament. the darn thing is like a bazillion pages long!

[Doom]

It is!

Try a copy of that and Le Miz... those books are good for your Chiropractor too!

Looks like someone is doing some gold-bending...

[macheteman]

It is!

Try a copy of that and Le Miz...

throw in "The count of monte cristo" and you can flatten out the rocky mountains...

[TheJord]

I think most of my university textbooks outweigh those books

[macheteman]

I think most of my university textbooks outweigh those books

this is also true. in addition to the money to buy the textbooks outweighing the textbooks themselves. my "statics and dynamics" book for this year cost about $300.

[Doom]

So you can break your back and your bank at the same time.

[Air Power]

Lol, I don't have to buy any textbooks this semester  more money for cards.

(explanation: using a free e-book for Quantum Physics, print packs for several classes $3-$10 each, reusing Chem II text from Chem I a couple years ago)

Anyway, I'll join the big book parade with A Latin Dictionary by Lewis and Short