Posted By:
Todd (nolemmings)1. It's Andy's card- he can do with it whatever.
2. I would not restore it if it were mine, despite the fact that Just So is probably my favorite set of all time-- I may one day own one and should not have passed on Tik's spotty Tebeau (or was it McKean) a couple years back. It is what it is.
3. I too place little stock (no pun intended) in the notion that he never plans on selling it. I'm guessing that one day he will die, and/or that the card will make its way into the market somehow, with or without him. Thus the fact that Andy may be a great, noble, honest, forthright guy is of little or at least incomplete comfort to me. A true vg-ex Burkett from Just So would go for $25K or more now, who knows how much later. Someone could get burned bad later.
4. I'm skeptical that it will be easy to observe that it has been restored. It seems very unlikely the buyer down the road will have another, real example in hand for comparison, since its doubtful that more than a handful of each subject exist, and more like two fingers full. Why not have it flat-out marked in clear, indelible/ unremovable terms "RESTORED" on the blank back if there is no intent to sell as original at any time?
5. Again, Andy can and should do what he wants. But I do have difficulty seeing much of a difference between this and the efforts by others to make restoration. I seem to recall Mike Wentz being raked for saying he had some stuff from the early 50's professionally restored for his own, non-financial purposes. I would just hope that people are consistent in their views on the subject, regardless of the card or its owner.
6. I honestly don't see any difference between restoring the entire border and "building" just one corner. If your altering the card because you find it aesthetically pleasing and you have no intent to sell or gain financially by it, what difference does it make if the card lacked a border compeltely or there was just a chunk missing/paper loss on photo/large ink marks on the face?
7. Whatever.... Andy best of luck on your project.