dark edges appearing on borderless print

[edcculus]

I was given a pack of Ilford postcard paper. I'm guessing it is ~8 years old and had never been opened. I started working on a print, and noticed the edges end up a little darker. This person gave me a bunch of other paper, but I have not printed it borderless, so I'm not sure if the effect is limited to just the postcard paper.

Does anyone know what could cause this?

I've only tried a set of negatives from one roll. I had to push a roll of HP5+ to 3200 to get the shots I needed indoors. The results are actually pretty good, albiet with a fair amount of grain. I doubt its the negative, even if some wacky things happened during processing since I'm doing a pretty major crop to fit what I need onto the odd dimensions of the postcard paper.

In the end, it doesnt really matter. The paper was free, and I'm going to use it anyways. I'm just interested for education really.

 

[erikg]

The paper has been fogged a bit, either with light or heat. The edges being more exposed show it first. Still nice to get some free paper.

 

[edcculus]

Thanks. Maybe she didn't store this paper as well as the other stuff. Free is free though.

 

[ROL]

I've experienced darkening in the unprinted borders of some of my lower graded (2) paper that has been lying around for at least 10 or 15 years. Presumably, the paper is beginning to go "off". As long as the printed image area is up to your standard (whatever that may be), and you fix and wash the paper adequately, I don't see any reason not to use it up – as quickly as practical.