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Posted By: JimB

We know there are plenty of legitimate high-grade vintage cards out there. Everybody seems to know of finds that have yielded them. The "Southern Find" of T206s is just one of the more famous of many such finds. I have no doubt that cards with some degree of alteration at times make it into higher grade holders than they otherwise would have gotten, but the suspicion that a large percentage of them are altered is probably not accurate and does not do the hobby much good.

I think we all see many more than we did twenty years ago because communication avenues in the hobby are so much greater today, both due to the internet and the high-profile major auction houses. How many hobbyists who have been around more than 20 years saw two Just So cards and two Four Base Hits cards all offered within a couple months of each other, as is currently the case? Does it mean these cards are not real? No, it means the offerings are much more widely visible today than they were twenty years ago. Before jumping to conclusions based on faulty reasoning, I think it would be wise to think this all through a bit. Casting suspicion on legitimate cards does not benefit anyone.

If it were so easy to manipulate cards into high grades and get them slabbed, the relative populations of high-grade cards would not be so low seventeen years and ten million+ cards into third party grading.
JimB