After taking time to think about what PWCC's Marketplace Tenets might mean, I'm not sure it moves the needle that much. The broad reason is because these tenets are for dealing with PWCC, and while Brent and people there can refer to it as the "Market" (with a capital 'M'), they're talking about the PWCC marketplace and not the larger market. And as has been mentioned, the larger market has its established opinions on alterations.
What remains to be seen is if PWCC will include anything about disclosures in their tenets, which will go a long way in knowing how this will all play out. Altering, conserving, rebuilding, rejuvenating... whatever anybody wants to call it; this stuff happens and as long as this is disclosed to buyers, then that's between the seller and the potential buyers. But if any seller doesn't disclose what was done to a card, no matter what they call it, then that's a problem.
Somebody mentioned the adage that stuff trumps all. I think that's partly true. Stuff matters, but relationships also matter. And I know I'm not the only one that will flat-out not buy from a seller who doesn't disclose alterations/conservation/whatever that's been done to a card that they know of. If a "bent region of a card" has been laid flat (as given as an example in the first post), I want to know about it before bidding (much less buying) and I believe that is a reasonable expectation to have. And if any seller doesn't disclose this, I would no longer do business with them. It doesn't matter what stuff they have, I wouldn't touch it based on principle.
I'm also curious how the final wording of the PWCC tenets will look, as it is described as the "rules of engagement" for dealing with PWCC. If conservation is not a necessity to disclose and a buyer finds out after the fact, I believe that eBay's rules will dictate a return is possible - will these tenets follow suit? To that end, I believe it is held that PWCC has a different seller fee schedule than others; does PWCC also have a different set of rules and regulations with eBay that would potentially eliminate the right for buyers to return items "not as described," should they discover some conservation efforts that were not disclosed? These tenets would make more sense if PWCC had its own platform, which may or may not be the end goal for this business.
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