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T206CollectorFirst, the size of the SGC insert is irrelevant to the actual size of the card. SGC modifies its insert for each card. In this case, they made a bad insert. I have returned cards to them that were not holdered well, and they have fixed them free of charge. The size of the insert changes each time.
Second, I agree with the comments above that the wear exhibited on this card, and the way the cut goes through the name, show that it was likely not trimmed but instead miscut. I recently pulled a stack of 20 T206 cards off a board they had been glued to 100 years ago (using the helpful soaking techniques learned on this board). Those cards were not all the same size. And I'm certain they were not trimmed in 1911. However, if SGC went by size alone, some of those cards would be ungradeable. There simply are more relevant questions to ask about a card to see if it was trimmed than size alone. Indeed, an oversized T206 card can be cut down to average size, but it is still trimmed. (Joe Orlando of PSA once said the same thing and got blasted for it on this board, but there has to be some truth to it.)
Finally, this board is very informative, but it also breeds collector paranoia about tampering and such. It's one thing to question tampering with an ungraded card on ebay. Lord knows there's a lot of counterfeiting and tampering going on there. But it's pretty easy for SGC to determine if a card is trimmed. The card will not look the same on all four edges. I watched an SGC card grader pre-examine some of my T206 cards once at a show, and the first thing he did was hold the card perpendicularly to himself and look at each of the thin edges/sides of the card. I am certain he was checking to see if the wear was uniform. I recently purchased two trimmed T206 cards and it is obvious from the edges what was cut in 1909 and what was cut in 1989.
Personally, I think it's a nice card that got a 4 because it was a little miscut. A pretty typical issue for T206 cards.
I also think that a card graded by SGC or PSA has a lot more accurate information in the number alone than the average description of an ungraded card by the average seller on ebay.
09-14-2004, 05:10 PM
Ebay Descriptions of graded cards
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