Posted By:
David SmithCutting one of these cards down now, (or any card this old, for that matter) in my opinion, is just plain stupid.
If the person who bought the candy waaaaaay back then didn't want the card to be cut down, they didn't cut it down. Why change things now?
Look, the white S74 silks were MEANT to have their paper backing removed and were supposed to be used for sewing purposes. Now, almost 100 years later, how many people are trying to reattach backs to silks which have had them removed? Why are they doing this? Because of MONEY!! Along the smae lines, how much are silks with needle holes in them worth compared to silks will no needle holes in them? Much less. The point is, collectors NOW are trying to get the best condition and most original silk (or card) that they can and are willing to pay BIG bucks to do it.
Another example would be the W555 cards and the original box that Mastro had for sale recently. How much are just the plain cards selling for? How much are the plain cards selling for which have larger borders? How much did the complete box sell for?
See a pattern developing? Items that are closer in condition to how they were originally produced are rarer, more collectible and often times more valuable. Like the guys on the Barrett Jackson auto auctions often say, a car can be restored 100 times but it is only original ONCE.
If the people who owned these items waaaaay back then wanted to take the knife to them, they would have. To cut them down NOW, just to make them look better, is idiotic to me.
David
Edited to add,
For another example, look what happened when someone butchered a Just So actress card so they could use the bottom advertising part to restore the Burkett card a few years ago. Look at how much it cost them to do it, the furor that erupted over it and then the price realized when the Frankencard sold. Was it REALLY worth the time, effort and destruction of ANOTHER card to restore the Burkett card? I didn't think so then and I don't think so now. But, obviously, what I thought really didn't matter to the person who owned the card.