I know dealers were already doing it to upgrade condition when I first got into cards in the 80's.
As long as I could remember you had to keep an eye out for 71's being touched up with black marker.
Hell, even the Brits got into it. I would buy lots of c. 1900's Ogden's Tab Cards (Sports & Non-Sports) directly from England......and loads of them would normally be touched up a bit. They weren't even worth much at the time, but solid black borders always seemed to make people think they were restoration experts for some reason.
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