Posted By:
Marc S.That it was partly opportunistic, and also as a response to the even-worse "opportunists" -- the dealers who routinely altered cards.
I know many collectors who got burned in the late 1980s by spending thousands upon thousands of dollars buying high-grade Mantle, Williams, and Ruth cards that eventually turned out to be altered, bleached or re-colored.
It is collectors that got burned like this, I thought, that helped fuel the initial demand for some of the graded-card industry.
Of course, you have to wonder how they were so easily fooled on trimmed cards time and time again. But many of the trim jobs were done expertly, without many of the tell-tale signs that reveal a sloppy job by today's standards. I've seen a few examples where I needed professional guidance to identify the areas of alteration...