[drcy]

AUTH is applied to cards that are altered, in especially poor condition (ala piece missing or burnt) or for the rare especially obscure items where it's difficult to know how to grade them.

Someone can technically submit a perfectly fine card for an AUTH grade and I assume would get it, but this is rarely if ever done. Maybe it would be done with grade poor cards.

The exception to the above paragraph is with autographed cards, in particular autographs on cheapo cards, where all the autograph collector considers important is the authenticity of the autograph and perhaps the card. Many autographed cards are entombed without the card itself graded.

Duly note that, according to my personal grading standards, an altered card grades as poor. I'm talking about restored and trimmed cards, not trying to start a discussion/philosophical debate about how a minor errant pen mark affects numerical grade. If others disagree with that personal definition, that is fine by me. I'm not trying to enact it into hobby law, and can see the argument of AUTH being a special grade (or ungrade?) applied to 'less than poor' cards, if that's how one defines altered cards.