Outed cards, now including a 130K gain on an Aaron rookie

[steve B]

Originally Posted by Dpeck100

What I find so odd about this entire discussion is this guy just puts it right out in the open.

https://www.gonewiththestain.com/samples-of-work.html

My good friend Rob who actually had one of the outed Moser cards from the Parkhurst wrestling set knows a dealer on EBAY who routinely sends cards to this guy to have improved. And as advertised it works.

This is the first time I have visited this guys site and there you have before and after photos of cards inside third party grader slabs that clearly have had work done to them. They showcase a SGC 6 Mantle that was removed from a scrapbook. When you navigate to the testimonial section you will find real life customers elated with the work. It seems there is no shortage of collectors and dealers willing to send their cards to this company to have them improved.

The Mantle story is particularly interesting because it sites they had articles in the SCD and that an auctioneer contacted them to try and rescue the cards. I was under the impression that SCD was a very serious publication geared towards top level hobby enthusiasts.

What am I missing here if it has been known for this long that guys like this have come up with ways to restore a cards condition and don't feel like they are doing anything wrong? I have yet to ever read an auction write up that says this card was restored and now resides in this higher graded slab thanks to Dick Towle.

Restoration is a very involved subject in most hobbies. Almost all accept some level of it. Usually a simple cleaning is ok, as long as it's done properly.
Most silver coins that are shiny have been cleaned in a solvent that removes tarnish
Part of identifying stamps is figuring out the watermark or lack of one. That means dipping it in fluid, which is a mild solvent and happens to do a bit of cleaning in the process. That's also done to detect creases, tears, thins, and some repairs. (The fluid is necessary on most old US stamps, on many foreign ones the watermark can be seen much more easily usually it just takes holding it up to some light. )

What hasn't really happened in cards is any consistent attitude as to what's ok and what isn't
I personally think Dick Towle goes too far. Although I have one card that has a sticky tape residue I'd love to be rid of, removing the stain is too much. And a penny sleeve keeps it from sticking to other cards, so it's good until I end up with a better one.

We as card collectors have no tradition of standard practice like coins or stamps, or cars, or.... anything else. Without that, disclosure becomes very important. And most of the people doing any work at all hide behind a TPG opinion, which is just not right. (To me, others may have a different tolerance for that) There's a general idea of what's too much, like trimming, or taking a marker to the borders of 71Topps.