Nolan Ryan Rookie - Colored eBay purchase in 2004/What to Do?
 

Quick background/cautionary tale: In the early 2000s, after my first hiatus of my collecting experience (first break in the mid 90s), I decided I was interested in buying a few cards I always wanted back when I was a teenager. eBay seemed to be a good place to start and I had a few good experiences. I decided to buy a raw Nolan Ryan rookie. I reviewed the pics, asked some questions etc. Of course, this was 15+ years ago, so lots of things changed with protections/knowledge, but I received the card and it looked good to my untrained eye. A year or so later I decided I would give grading a shot, so I submitted to Beckett and to my surprise the card came back colored on the corners. Lesson learned and that experience along with life in general (4 kids in 8 years) pushed me out of eBay and collecting in general.

Fast forward to COVID 2020 and I jumped back in. I decided to pull out my cards and sitting at the top of my pile is that Ryan. It is in a case and I still have the BGS stickered response. My question is what can I do with it besides it being a life lesson? Do other graders slab colored card? Does it even matter or help? I guess in the end I do not plan on selling it, but more curious to what the process is these days.

Thanks for any guidance.

PS: I would put a few pic on the is site, but being new I have no idea how to do that.

I would get it put into an AUT holder and sell it, if that is the goal. And if that isn't the goal then just hang onto it.

New lingo to me...what are colored corners?

I'm assuming he means retouched with a marker or crayon. For '68 Topps, if you had a worn corner it would theoretically be possible to color back in some of the brown burlap design to make it look less obvious. I don't know if it would make the corners look sharper, but it may make wear less noticeable. This is of course alteration, and ruins the technical grade of the card.

The corners looked bad so someone as an example took a marker and colored them back in.

My first question would be how is the condition of the card otherwise? If it's a beater I probably wouldn't bother getting it slabbed. But if it still has a nice image and surface, even altered cards can be very collectible or at a minimum worth something to somebody. I have a '56 Mantle with similar corner issues in an SGC Authentic slab. I have other cards that are worth more, but this one is sentimental to me because I've had it since I was about 13 years old. Yes, it's altered, but who cares? It's still a great looking card. You will find especially with more valuable vintage cards that there is still indeed quite a market for such things. Some people have to have only nicer cards in respectable, numbered slabs. For others interested more in eye appeal, important cards can sometimes be had on the cheap in A slabs.

Yep, in order to get the card slabbed AUTHENTIC ALTERED by PSA, you would submit it with the following sentence under the line in the form for this card:
"SLAB AS AUTHENTIC ALTERED IF IT DOES NOT GET A NUMBER GRADE."

Well, when you look at it, you still have a Nolan Ryan rookie card. Whatever they did to the card obviously wasn't an eyesore, or you would have noticed it right away when you got it. Just the other day, I received a card and it had a slight smudge on it. I erased it, and there wasn't any paper loss that I could see. If PSA got it, they might detect something. But maybe not. I'm not going to sell it. It's a nice card and I don't see the smudge or the paper loss. And I could see a kid approaching the card that way, doing something like that. You could look at what was done to your card the same way. It's still the card. I would take it out of the slab and just put it in a top loader and enjoy it!

I recommend sending it to Nolan Ryan to get it signed. It would cost you roughly the same as sending it in to get graded, only it might give you a better appreciate/take some of the sting out of having it in your collection. My first significant card purchase of adulthood was a Ryan Rookie, and now it’s signed by Koosman and Ryan and a keeper.

Hopefully these attached.

https://net54baseball.com/attachment...1&d=1603843666

https://net54baseball.com/attachment...1&d=1603843689

Do you have scans, pics ready to post? If so, try to get their sizes pretty small (like about 1MB or smaller) so they will readily load up on the site. Then (as you are typing your message) click the 'paper clip' icon on the page as so (highlighted in blue)...

Attachment 423767

Which will bring up this window...

Attachment 423768

Hit "Choose File" and find the image(s) on your computer that you want to post (the screenshot shows that I had already uploaded the 'stepone' graphic) and then hit "Upload."

When the file uploads, go back to where you were typing the message...

Attachment 423770

And then hit that paper clip again to choose the file you want to add to your post...

Attachment 423771

And BOOM!! that's it. There are other ways to upload pics, but this is the most straightforward.

(Technical note for clarity: a couple of minor revisions were made to the text after I took screenshots, so some of it doesn't match exactly.) (Of course, now everyone reading this is trying to find those differences. Ha ha.)

Thanks all for the responses!

I was able to post a few pics (Post #10). I think it looks decent, no creases a little OC L/R and on back. I think the corners look decent (despite the coloring). I really looked under the light and moved it around and I guess you can see a hint of discoloration when you look at the specific spots where they referenced.

Nice looking card.


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Ha ha!!! All that work for nothing. You must've posted it while I was working on my spiel. Oh well.

I appreciate the effort, trust me I will forgot how I did it and will refer back to it.

I have the same issue with a 1963 Topps Mickey Mantle card. I bought the card about 35 to 40 years ago. About 4 years ago I sent it in for grading as I had aquired another one and was planning on selling one of them.

The bottom two corners have been recolored.

I am hesitant to sell the card since I don't want someone to crack it out and sell as unaltered or re-slab it in a fake case for a higher grade.

Mike

Just listened to the Golden Age of Cardboard Podcast and after listening to that I am going to send it to his Foundation to get signed. Win/win.

To close the loop, here is the end result. Thanks all for your suggestions.

Attachment 439371

now you need to get Koosman!

Wow - that auto really looks great on your card. Absolutely a keeper.

Perfect solution! Looks great!

Great auto, great card. Congrats.

I think I read on another thread that coloring the corners was fairly common decades ago. So there are probably a lot more colored cards out there than is suspected.

I think this was a great idea. The card looks great. Congrats.


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I can vouch for that. I bought a complete set of 1971 Topps Greatest Moments in the '90s. About three years ago I sent them to PSA and fourteen of them came back Auth. color added. My guess is that all 1971 Topps were ripe for touching up with a black marker.

That looks pretty awesome...nicely done. I'd be beyond proud to own that...

Makes you think what we all have somewhere deep in our binders...lol.