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Posted By: Rob Ray

Many years ago,I purchased a couple of early 70s vending boxes from Mark Murphy,a very trustworthy dealer at the time (albeit pricey as heck)....at least in my memory it was from him. Anyway,back then,I decided to crack the boxes to upgrade my sets .PLenty of mint cards,and LOTs of stars (so I'm positive they weren't searched),many stuck together...but mostly NM-M. Anyway,there seemed to be a pattern in one of the boxes of cards (70 or 72,I forget) where a few cards in a row...5 or 6?...were just a titch (sp?) shorter L-R than the others. I'm sure it was that way originally,as well.
Not to mention: Of the many early 70s racks I purchased years back,there were more than a few cards that would't measure up,so to speak. I've told the story before of a NJ dealer who came to my house in Brooklyn and opened rack after rack (after buying them from me,of course),which was shocking enough. He opened EVERYthing. You'd be surprised how many 71 rack-fresh cards were o/c or 'short" by a minute amount.
ONe of the reasons I don't "do" graded: I'm sure many of those today would come back as "altered."
Like another poster said,there are many instances of right out of the pack or box cards being "short" back then. Experienced buyers know this and those who aren't...don't know this. You can tell a factory default from a poorly altered card.
And don't even TALK about vintage OPcs...seems like they had blind folks serrating THOSE babies back in the day