Posted By:
Corey R. ShanusI've been going to card shows for 40 years. My collecting focus as regards cards has always been the vintage cards. I remember vividly shows I went to in the 60's and 70's where if you found a clean ex-mt of what you were looking for, you felt you hit paydirt. I remember too a conversation I had with an experienced dealer in the 80's in which he proudly showed me two '33 Goudey's that he had been trying to find for some time. This dealer, a regular on the show circuit, only collected high grade and he was thrilled to finally acquire those two cards in ex-mt condition. Yet suddenly here we are 20+ years later when it seems that all you see on dealers' tables at shows are 7's, 8's and 9's. Where did they all come from? These observations, coupled with the staggering financial incentive to "work on"/alter cards to improve their grade, lead me to believe you're being remarkably naive to believe the percentage of altered cards is as low as you say. Yet, and here's the irony, you of all people, given the statistically significant quantity of high-grade slabbed cards you own, can probably do the definitive study of the percentage of high-grade cards that are altered. If....of course, you were willing to have your cards re-examined. But as you've consistently told us, you are not willing -- unless perhaps someone is to compensate you for some portion of the costs. Maybe some executive of a PSA competitor reading this post will be willing to cut you a deal. I know if I owned a grading company that touted its ability to detect alterations better than the competition, I would leap at the chance to expose the failings of my competitors. But regardless whether that is to happen, you're the one leading the parade here about organizing a collector's revolt. Leaders cannot expect their followers to abide by a different standard than they abide by. If your standard is that you cannot suffer adverse economic consequences, then for all practical purposes the revolt can never happen. So maybe you should stop talking about it.