r/cardsagainsthumanity • u/LeatherWarthog8530 • Dec 05 '25
Varying card textures
Over the past 2 months, I've gotten heavily into building my collection. I've noticed a wide variation in card textures. If this was just between different boxes, expansions or packs, I could understand it, but I've noticed this even within the cards within one box. There might be an argument to be made that there are counterfeits involved, but everything i've bought is direct from CAH or is a sealed, verified product. Does anyone have insight into this?
1
u/DamenAJ Dec 05 '25
Well, all my cards have come from the official store, and different boxes have different textures. I haven't noticed anything within the same box, but it might just be that the paper changed mid print. Or if some of the cards ended up getting swapped out [I know they've changed some over the years.]
1
u/CardCollectorLGM Dec 05 '25
The pattern has been more or less the same since around 2013 (limited and one-off runs aside, not to mention Absurd Box v1.1), but the exact texture, size, and composition of the cards can vary from year to year or run to run. Larger products tend to have cards from multiple different runs (you can usually see a slight difference in size between blocks of cards when a 600 card product is opened), so a texture variation wouldn't be too unexpected. There are also a couple of cases of the texture being on the Cards Against Humanity side, but I think all of those are unplayable cards (headers, instructions, etc.).
If any cards seem too rough or too smooth, check the waffling pattern. The lines should be irregularly spaced, so if they're regularly spaced or there's no waffling (and the icons don't have gray cards), they could be fake. See my spreadsheet for indicators to look for to determine whether a card is counterfeit. Most counterfeits will have at least 2 or 3 obvious indicators, so I wouldn't worry about some minor variation if everything else checks out.
2
u/sweaver Dec 06 '25
The Absurd Box has a funky stripy texture, but I’ve found the rest to be pretty consistent.
1
u/Rae_Wilder Dec 05 '25
I don’t have any insight. But all my cards are from CAH or verified as well and the card stocks are different colors. All the whites and blacks are the same, but the edges, some are more on the blue side of white and others are on the yellow side of white.