Posted By:
Dave I agree with Jim's assessment that the it's the auction house and sellers that are really to blame when it comes to sales that involve altered or trimmed cards.
here's my problem with the grading companies.....consistency ! I wonder if I were to submit all my trimmed cards previously mentioned to another grading company if thety would all be rejected as being trimmed. I think PSA has a consistency problem , but that's just my opinion based upon the cards I have received back from them. I have PSA 4's,5's,and 6's that are darn hard to tell apart grade wise. I look at these cards under magnification, and white light, and still can't find the difference between my Mike Mitchell PSA 3 and my Mitchell PSA 6. I haven't used any of the other grading companies, but has anyone had sinilar experiences ? Card essentially looking the saem are graded differently. I'm not sure what to really make of the whole concept of breaking open one companies slab to get a card re-graded by another company. If the card gets a better grade does that mean that the second company has graders that are less experienced ?
Barry, your post about the altered 8's scares the sh*t out of me and several other collectors I've talked to since yesterday. If these cards are knowingly altered and slabbed I think it would do the collecting world a service by exposing some details. knowingly selling altered cards does the hobby a great diservice, and chases away future collectors. My brother and I started collecting pre-war baseball memorabilia when we were in our teens....I can say that if we knew then what we know now about the T card world we may not have jumped in so readily. It was my love of baseball history, and the sport itself that attracted me to collecting the older cards not the prospects of "investing" or making big money off of selling baseball cards.
just my 2 cents worth again