Trimming
In the early 1970's, condition didn't seem to matter much and the cards weren't worth much. In the late 1970's, there was a craze where values jumped radically. Dealers started applying grades to the cards, and increasing the prices of the nicest ones. By 1980, there was certainly some trimming going on, but not very much (IMO).
Slabbing the cards in the late 1980's made deceitful trimming & altering a 'get rich quick' scheme for a few cheaters. It got worse in the late 80's to early 90's. I, personally, don't collect pre-1920 cards above EX-MT because I feel that a great many could have been trimmed. That includes even professionally graded cards of NMT and better.
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