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05-31-2007, 06:05 PM
Posted By: <b>leon</b><p>I spoke with Dave Forman a little while ago. I told him I thought this post he made a while back might be pertinent to the topics at hand.... This is cut and pasted 100% with no changes. Since Dave doesn't really post on chat boards (can anyone blame him) I had helped him post this...it's entirely his words though and he wrote it:<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />SGC's Response<br />November 29 2006 at 11:50 AM <br />leon (Premier Login leonl)<br />Forum Owner <br /> <br /><br />--------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /> <br />I've been reading the recent threads on Net54 with great interest, and thought I would take some time to respond to some of your concerns. Clearly, these are important concerns for collectors, myself included.<br /><br />In response to Doug Allen’s questions, we do not feel that it is the job of a grading company to tell any submitter what to do or not do to a card. We consider our role in the process to be simple: it is our job to review cards for authenticity and detectable alterations, assign a grade to the card, and encapsulate it into a holder. It is also our job to be the best grading company in the hobby, and to earn our customers’ trust with each and every submission. We understand that when a collector purchases a card in an SGC holder, they are placing their trust in our opinion as to the authenticity and grade of the card. That’s not a responsibility that we take lightly.<br /><br />It is only natural that I feel that SGC boasts the most talented, experienced, and well-trained graders in the industry, and we make every conceivable effort to remain on the leading edge of our hobby, particularly when it comes to detecting card alterations. This is an area of constant education and training for us, and we feel that our team is the most skilled in the industry. At the same time, we also recognize that human errors occur – this is why we have a written guaranty. <br /><br />I cannot emphasize strongly enough that if you feel that you have a card in our holder that you may feel may be altered or overgraded, we want you to review it with us. It is important to us that we get it right every time – and if there is a problem with a card, we want to buy it back from you and get it off the market. That’s part of the commitment we make to our customers, every single day. It is our job to be the best grading company in the hobby in every respect – and our guaranty is a big piece of what makes SGC special.<br /><br />To address some of the other issues we’ve seen this weekend:<br /><br />When it comes to restoration of cards, we break the issue down into three categories. The first category includes things like erasing light pencil marks, wax/gum removal, corner flattening, album/glue removal, and wrinkle removal. These are examples of procedures that, if done carefully and properly, are unfortunately undetectable. When done properly, cards that have undergone these procedures can find there way into SGC holders, because as I mentioned, there is no way to detect that it has been done. Often these procedures are done improperly, they leave telltale signs that we consider to be evidence of tampering, and we reject the cards. Some of these telltale signs include but are not limited to a change in the cards texture, unusually flat surfaces, and at times there is a slight transfer of a foreign substance to a card.<br /><br />There is, however, a second category of restoration that we feel is far more problematic, that we see far more frequently. This category involves slight trimming, adding tiny amounts of paper to corners, touching up corners and/or touching up minor areas in the background to hide surface wear. An astonishing percentage of high-grade cards that we see have undergone procedures that fall into this category. I have complete confidence that our graders have the knowledge and ability to detect these types of alterations and reject the cards. However, as mentioned above, in the unlikely event that such an alteration gets by our graders our written guaranty will protect you. SGC rejects these cards on a regular basis.<br /><br />The third category involves extensive restoration, such as major corner rebuilding, pieces added to cards, rebacking, and creating variations. While these types of alterations are seen less frequently, we also feel completely confident in our ability to detect them. Obviously, we reject these cards.<br /><br />Based on some of the feedback we have received over the weekend, we have decided to devote some space in SGC Collector magazine to a series of articles that will help collectors better understand how to detect certain types of alterations themselves. Part of our role as a grading company is not only to provide you with a trustworthy opinion on cards, but to be a resource for you to help increase your own knowledge as a collector. With card values skyrocketing, it is more important than ever that you purchase your cards from a trustworthy source, using a grading company that gives you confidence – but it is equally important that you consistently work to build your own base of knowledge. As such, you can look to the upcoming issues of the magazine to add to your reference materials. If there are any specific areas you would like these articles to address, feel free to email us and let us know.<br /><br />As always, if you ever have any questions or concerns, my staff will be happy to help you with whatever we can. Feel free to contact us at any time – and we hope to see some of you at the upcoming Philly show in Reading. <br /><br />Regards,<br />Dave Forman <br /><br /><br />edited 1 word for spelling<br /><br /><br /> <br />