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boxingcardmanI bought a big collection of 1970 basketball, football and hockey cards from the original owner who'd opened them as a kid. He came to me with the cards the original tall boy basketball display boxes (wish I still had them; a casualty of the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, unfortunately. Squashed flat under a collapsed shelf). The cards had been sitting in an attic for 22 years at his parents' house. The cards were mostly 7-8 quality owing to normal centering and yielded some 9's too. I also purchased a good sized 1952-1954 Topps collection that had been sitting with the original owner for about 45 years. His cards yielded mostly 7s with some 6s, 8s and a few 9s.
Here's the kicker: There were also a good number of cards with hairline creases that I did not buy from that 1950s seller, including some gorgeous 1952 Topps cards, because he wanted half of high Beckett (remember that term?) for them. I now know that a halfway decent doctor can take out those creases well enough to get them past PSA; just check out the altered cards link "upstairs" for some spine-chilling info. It would not surprise me a bit if some enterprising person of low character purchased those cards, removed the creases, and got them slabbed, because they were otherwise just as nice as the 7-8-9 cards I bought. I think that is what accounts for the number of high grade cards we see versus what we all remember from 25-30 years ago. 30 years ago we saw a lot more flawed cards due to a minuscule removable flaw, a flaw that wasn't worth the time and trouble to address then but that an enterprising fraudster now sees a huge financial incentive to remedy. Hang around this hobby long enough and you will hear rumors of dealers who make their money cleaning up cards, playing crack-out roulette, etc. Some are even dum [sic] enough to admit they do it. There is simply too much money to be had. I pity the collectors who are naive enough to simply assume that if it is in a slab it must be good; it might (stress the "might" aspect since getting satisfaction isn't a sure thing) be subject to a buy-back when the grader is called out, but it is by no means good just because it is in a slab. As far as who is "enhancing" these high end cards, I hope we see some names named a la the Marino crew on the autograph side when the Feds get into high gear.
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