The answer is if disclosing what was done (cleaning, spooning a wrinkle) would lower the sales value or grade it would be assigned by a grader, it is unethical not to disclose.
If you have for the same price two identical Mint-looking cards, and you say the first is untouched and the second had a couple of wrinkles spooned out, 100 out of 100 times the buyer will pick first card. All 100 give the first a higher value, or the second a lesser value. And 100 includes the spooners themselves. This shows that, ethically, and likely even legally. you have to disclose even that the card was spooned.
Obviously, this disclosure isn't always done and won't always be found out, but that's beside the point as far as judging the ethics and need for disclosure goes.
Last edited by drcy; 06-10-2019 at 10:38 PM.
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