Is it ethical to alter cards and sell them without disclosure?

[Snowman]

Originally Posted by judsonhamlin

This. Not that we don’t have enough attorneys weighing in, but it might be good to remember that there is criminal liability for, I don’t know, theft by deception (“a person is guilty of theft if he purposely obtains property of another by deception. A person deceived if he purposely… prevents another from acquiring information which would affect his judgment of a transaction “). That’s NJSA 2C:20-4B, from MPC 223.3. If the amount in question is more than $75K, theres a presumption of jail time with that.
And, also in NJ (but sourced from MPC 224.2), a person commits a crime of the fourth degree if, with a purpose to defraud anyone, or with knowledge that he is facilitating a fraud to be perpetrated by anyone, he makes, ALTERS or utters any object so that it appears to have value because of antiquity, rarity, source or authorship which it does not possess. That’s NJSA 2C:21-2.
Not sure how you dodge that if you’re not disclosing alterations that cause a buyer to pay more for a card than they would. And as to value, I think we can agree that, say a legitimate PSA 8 T206 Cobb or 33 Goudey Ruth isn’t a helluva lot more expensive and rare than an A graded card

Lol. Good luck with that argument in a court of law.