Evidence of trimming

[David W]

I've got a T206 Mullin that I've had for 7-8 years, and the person before me had for probably 30 years. It would grade a 4-5.

I know he didn't trim it, and I know I didn't trim it, but twice PSA has rejected it as trimmed.

So if it was trimmed it was trimmed years ago, which would make no sense since that didn't hardly matter until the last 15 years.

Personally I don't think it has been trimmed.

[Bosox Blair]

Originally Posted by David W

So if it was trimmed it was trimmed years ago, which would make no sense since that didn't hardly matter until the last 15 years.

Personally I don't think it has been trimmed.

I understand your frustration, and you might be right.

But...lots of cards were trimmed decades ago. Many times it had nothing to do with value (as we assume), but other reasons valid to that person. Some were trimmed to make a uniform size for all of the old owners cards. I've seen cards that were trimmed by an old owner to ensure they fit in a box he was using to keep them. Sometimes the trim was done carefully by a collector - not to deceive, but because the person cared about the collection in his own way.

Cheers,
Blair

[glynparson]

plus just as a side note trimming for unscrupulous reasons has been going on for a lot longer then 15 years.

[Al C.risafulli]

Glyn is right, of course. There's also the issue with tobacco cards of plastic sheets from the late 70s and early 80s that were slightly too small for some of the oversized T-cards, and thus owners actually trimmed their cards to fit them into the sheets. No deception was involved, but a card that was trimmed for such a reason would likely be rejected as trimmed.

Virtually every type of card, and every manufacturer, is different. Frank is correct in that there are telltale signs along the edge of a card that can help someone identify whether an edge was created with a cutting die, a paper cutter, a hobby knife or some other implement. People who have looked at thousands and thousands of cards learn how the edges of certain issues should appear when they've been cut naturally, and when an edge does not appear the way it should, there's a likelihood that the card has been trimmed.

-Al