Posted By:
Marc S.that is messes with the original intent of the issue.
For example -- if O-Pee-Chee cards in the 1970s were cut with a needle and thread mechanized process, the end result is that you often end up with cards that have rough and sometimes fuzzy edges. This is how OPC wanted to produce the cards -- and thus it represents their original spirit and intent.
If you take a sheet of 1970s OPC cards, and cut them with sophisticated laser (which I don't think really happens much) or other advanced technology -- you end up with cards that end up looking nothing like how the manufacturer initially made them.
Also -- at what point does one differentiate sheet-cut from trimming? If you take your argument -- a logical extension would be this: "Well, this card was originally factory oversized. Since the so-called standard size for this issue is such-and-such, I will professionally trim it down to the dimensions that it should be". That doesn't make sense to me, either.
Cards were meant to be distributed in one way -- it seems to me that anything else is cheating.
Exception: Some cards, like Post, Bazooka or Hostess or some others, were produced in such a way that the consumer was intended to cut them themselves. These cards, it seems, make sense to be cut, since that was how they were intended to be used. Of course -- I do not much see the need to today take uncut boxes and strip them away to their component parts for grading's sake....