What Do You Think?
 

I saw this 1952 Bowman Mantle in a graded card holder with a relatively high grade. But I don't know. It looks like there may be an erasure on the Mick's right sleeve. What do you think? Does this look like an erasure or is it a printing anomaly? I tried to zoom in on the second picture so you could see the area I was talking about. I noticed it mostly in the pinstripes on the Mick's right sleeve, but it might extend across on the other side as well.

I tried to get a better closeup of the area. I've added another Mantle for comparison.

I'd go with the printing anomaly viewpoint. The washed out areas in the pin-striping appear in all the other examples of this card that I have seen, so hard to see it as an "erasure."

It doesn't seem the 'erasure' hits the black border, which could help prove it's just a printing anomaly. It would be hard taking an eraser to that card and giving it a good go without affecting the border at least a tiny bit...but it looks perfect.
(Of course, this argument is null and void if the 'erasure' doesn't come relatively close to said border.)

Maybe you guys are right. I might just be paranoid with all this talk about high end cards being trimmed/colored/erased, etc. You start seeing things. I also thought it was possible it just has been slightly rubbed in that spot, with no intent to deceive.

I bet Moser could do it 😁

Kidding aside, looks okay to me. Then again, I somehow ended up with one of the ‘48 Leaf Musials outed on BO in my collection. But hey, it has a HE sticker on it!

IMO, '1st Graded' is a red flag!

Well, you know the old saw - "It's not paranoia if someone really is trying to get you," but I'm wondering, if you are seriously considering purchase, do you have any chance of getting the card in hand so that you can examine it? That is always the acid test, but I realize not possible in many cases these days. I'm pretty sure that the washed out printing area is not evidence of tampering, but there could be other issues with the card. Good luck.

Why?

From what I've read GAI was pretty good in the beginning and the problems were later.

caveat emptor

you buy a GAI card, you'd better price it as "authentic" if you plan on crossing it.

I only have one, also a "first graded" and it's fine.
Later stuff is supposedly pretty iffy.