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William HeitmanA company puporting to be a grader or authenticater is only as good as the people doing the work. By 1980, I could tell whether a pre WWII card was authentic or trimmed just by examining it closely. Why? I had handled so many of the cards that it almost became a sixth sense. The grading services would do the hobby a real service if it hired people who really know the cards. To me, there just is no excuse for slabbing an M116, and labelling it a T206.
I see quite a few names popping up in these threads. Some were notorious in the 1970's and 1980's for selling trimmed and altered cards. It's frightening to think how many trimmed E cards have been put into people's collections. Or how many N300 Mayo's have been put away whose borders were carefully marked up with markers to make them solid black. And I don't think it is a giant leap to say many of these have been given a grade by the grading services. I just don't think there are too many people to be trusted when it comes to grading and authenticating and some of those who cannot have their names come up an awful lot as experts.