A numerical analysis of a miscut 2010 Chrome hobby box

I saw a good deal on hobby boxes of Topps Chrome on the ol' internet the other day, so picked up a couple. The 2010 rookie class is pretty exceptional, at least, so far, with some rookies that seemed destined for stardom. Just ask Ryan Klesko. Add in different refractors, colorfractors, xfractors and various chromed-out inserts, and it adds up to a fun break.

That is, until you really look at the cards you pull. Most of them, and I have numbers to back this up, are miscut.

A card can only be miscut in two ways and still be regulation size, x-axis, left-right, and y-axis, up and down. You can't have a good side opposite a bad side, you just get two crappy sides.

Or four. Exhibit A, John Ely, being miscut on both axis.

And exhibit B, just what you don't want to see, a miscut Strasburg, miscut on the x-axis.

Honestly, I don't mind a little off center. But that is a big swath of white on the right hand side. And there is no excuse for that.

Or at least to the extent that it was present in my box.

A Chrome box has 24 packs, 4 cards each. Some might have a super thick card, like a manu-patch, but this box did not. Thus 96 cards in the box.

25 of those cards were rookies, 2 were autos, the rest were base or inserts.

Of the 2 autos, both were well cut. But both were the Cub's Tyler Colvin. And one was smudged.

Of the 25 rookie cards, 25 were miscut. Yes, 25 of 25. 100%

Of the 69 remaining cards, 23 were miscut. 33%

That means of the 96 cards, 48 were miscut. Exactly 50%.

We have gone way past 1981 Fleer numbers here.

Then there is the pringle issue, the habit of the cards to curl into a pringlesque shape. I ripped a pack of 2005 chome, and they were as flat and level as a flat and level board.

But that is another gripefest entirely.

I have a second box that seems to be about the same, although I did not run the numbers, so speak. Perhaps I will.

So do you have similar numbers in your boxes, box breakers? Retails seems a smidge better, as in, I have a rookie card from retail that ISN'T miscut. At least one. From hobby, I have none.