An Ethical Thought Problem

[brett 75]

Would that mean all Redman , Post , Wheaties, etc, not be authentic as those are all cut by people everywhere . Cards cut from a sheet in my opinion are authentic . They left the factory uncut . Does it really matter who cut them ? Brett

[drc]

It's ethical to say the cards were cut recently as whether or not they were cut recently matters to bidders and the market value. Also, many collectors won't consider at your local Kinko's to be 'factory cut.' Factory cut Topps cards means cut by Topps. I'm talking here specifically about Topps and Bowman type sheets, not Wheaties-- the latter is topic for a different post. A main difference with Wheaties type cards is they were intended to be cut by hand away from the factory. You cutting off a Ted Williams card in your living room is what Wheaties intended-- though you're doing is 60 years later. Topps cards were intended to be cut at the factory and the uncut sheets weren't made for the public.

In general, if there's information you don't want to disclose at sale as you have a fear it will lower the sell price, that's information you should be disclosing.

[steve B]

Lots of interesting ways to go with this one.

I believe it's possible to cut a Topps sheet just as the factory would have. All you need is someone at a commercial printer willing to spend the time on the cutter.

I also think it's wrong to cut uncut sheets, even if the factory would have cut them.

The one I wish I could have saved was an 84 Topps sheet made for the mail in program they had. They allowed sending in wrappers or something for I think 20 cards of your choice so you could complete the set. Since the program was abused, with lots of people "needing" all the big stars they had a special sheet with 3 of each of the most popular players. I couldn't afford the one I saw, and it got sold as 3 card panels.

Other cards pose different problems.

Cards with coupons I consider trimmed without them. Redman, zeenut, Hires, most of the Pepsi sets etc.

Cards from boxes I see pretty much the same way. I woud collect complete boxes if I could, but it's not usually practical.

The 84 Nestles I think came as sheets. So I would consider any singles as trimmed since it would have been done after issue.

83 Topps were available as sheets too, but identical to the regular cards, so it would be very hard to tell.

And at least one of the Kelloggs sets I got came as 4 card panels with a tiny bit of backing paper connecting the cards. I've tried keeping them intact, but the cards are gradually making that decision for me.

Steve B

[ALR-bishop]

Since I have the set, and since high number cards are easy to find, albeit expensive, I'd keep the sheet, which would be pretty unique. But if I owned it, I'd feel free to do whatever I wanted with it, regardless of what anyone else thought I should do.