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Posted By: barrysloate

I've been off the board for a couple of days but I thought at this time I would add a new "wrinkle" (pun intended) to this discussion. And I only posted on the Mile High thread because it was at the top of the board. While everyone is rightly concerned with the issue of altered cards, I'm not sure you are all aiming at the right source. If I had to guess, the amount of work done to improve cards by dealers is minimal. It could be done now and then, but at most it might involve ironing a wrinkle, and if done at all quite infrequently. I think the real source of all these problems lies with those trained in paper restoration, and many of them work below the radar and may be unknown to the hobby. The skill with which a good paper conservator can restore a worn card to look mint is extraordinary, and I am sure many of these frankenstein monsters are so good that they pass detection and are put in holders. I don't know how many people are doing this illicitly, but I think that is the source of all the repaired and restored cards that enter the hobby. And if I were guessing, I would say it may be close to epidemic. The same goes for autograph forgers, who neither collect nor sell publicly, but work clandestinely looking for old paper and old baseballs to do their work. With baseball cards, by the time these are put into holders, the conservator is long separated from them. He has made his money, he probably knows some sleazy dealer who will help him fence his work, and when these cards make it into the hobby, they are assimilated with all the other circulating material. Sorry, I can't name names but I think it is the paper conservator who is much more dangerous than the dealer who may or may not be pressing out a crease. It is well and good to ask all these auction houses what their ethical practices are, but they are not the primary source of the problem.