Grading Pre-WW2 cards

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Posted By: steve

I continue to enjoy this wonderful forum. Thank you. Sorry to bore anybody but…I very actively bought, traded, flipped, etc., cards as a kid in the early sixties. I kept all the cards so I know that these are all genuine, unaltered, etc. I am currently selling off most of them on ebay and want to concentrate on obtaining only very high grade PSA 50s & 60s Superstar cards and also Pre-WW2 cards such as Goudeys, T206, etc. Very high grade Pre-WW2 cards are a bit out of my price range so I’ll probably windup buying lesser grades both graded and ungraded. I thoroughly enjoy collecting but the businessperson in me still wants to buy a genuine card for the lowest possible price. I also collected coins as a kid and am rekindling that interest also. With coins, if they are cleaned or altered, that greatly decreases the value. I imagine it must be that way with cards but maybe not. With the information gathered since reading the posts in this fine forum, I’ve come to learn that these cards get trimmed, altered, cleaned, bleached, etc, etc, etc. Is there a website or book that anyone can recommend as far as looking out for and spotting these types of cards with information and guidelines on how much, say if a card has been cleaned, does it generally deduct from its value. My instincts would say to never buy a trimmed card at any price but it seems as though with certain scarce Pre-WW2 cards that "problems" are acceptable if the price is right. I realize that grading these Pre-WW2 cards seems to be more of an art than a science which to me makes collecting them even more interesting. Any and all responses are greatly appreciated. Thanks again!