Thought of the day (sorry -- I'm bored)

[Archive]

Posted By: Marc S. 

Ebay's pre-1950 category had exactly 3,466 items listed the last time I checked.

Of those, 48 had titles and/or descriptions that contained the word "trimmed". (this includes a handful where there was a guarantee that the card was not trimmed or altered in any way). 22 had titles/description including the word "short". There is some overlap here.

So, there are about 60 cards that are listed in the category as being trimmed and/or short (a search on "altered" turned up nothing significant). This equates to a little over 1.7% of the listed auctions.

Anyone care to hazard a guess at what the actual percentage is?

I was also going to any of the dealers about the percentage of altered cards they come in contact with, but then I thought that that may not be an appropriate question. From my experience, the vast majority of the time, a collection either has a significant number of alterations, or very, very few.

[Archive]

Posted By: MW

Marc --

Yes; I would agree with your last statement. Collections usually contain very, very few altered cards or, in some cases, a significant amount. I would say that it would be fairy accurate to assert that altered cards tend to accumulate in certain circumstances. It is also perhaps interesting to note that nearly every collection we purchase that was assembled in the 1970s or earlier, contains zero altered cards.

I can't give you an exact estimate on the number of altered cards we encounter, but it would be quite small if all cards are considered. If only star cards (say, with a value of $100 or greater) are considered, then the percentage would be somewhat higher. Possibly 2% to 3%. If anything, we encounter far more reprinted cards that are artificially aged.

[Archive]

Posted By: benge610

Am I to "assume" that a subject which is "fairy accurate" tends to flutter about in the general vicinity of accuracy? I remember seeing a Shakespearean play in high school where many of the actors ran around stage in tights; does this term "fairy accurate" actually date back to Middle English (or Elizabethan) times, and subsequently mean something totally different (men in tights)? Or just dates back to a good party night in high school..... and I'm simply acting like a dunder head? As usual, I tend to think the latter.

Michael, I thought you made some good points during the "great debate", along with many others.
Just having some fun.

Carry on.

Ben.