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Posted By: barrysloate

David- whether or not you are new to the board (and we were all new at one time) you bring up many excellent points, as well as some provocative topics. When I entered the hobby in the early 1980's there were some high grade cards but not nearly as many as you see today. There's no question this raises many reg flags.

Also there is no question that skilled paper conservators can do extremely high quality work that is difficult to detect. It would take a fairly thorough examination of a card to uncover repairs, and some of the grading services are clearly overburdened with submissions and don't have the time to spend with each card. As such, I can't help but imagine how many altered cards currently reside in holders.

And provenance is an extremely important part of collecting; unfortunately, not enough is known about the majority of cards that trade for large dollar amounts.

Something tells me that in the next year or so there are going to be some major revelations in this hobby. Think I'll stick around to find out.

And Rob- I enjoyed your review- well written.