Quote:
Originally Posted by thecatspajamas
Scott,
Have you seen a lot of intentional trimming of photos prior to being slabbed? I'm not questioning your observation, just really wondering what the point would be since, to my knowledge, PSA does not actually grade the photo being slabbed but rather deems it "authentic" or not and assigns a Type, neither of which would be affected (or improved) by trimming. I could see this being a concern once number grades are being assigned to photos (not doubt it's coming sooner or later), but until then, I would think that most of the photo-chopping was done by editors over the years cropping photos for publication. Am I being naive in thinking that?
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You aren't being naive - most probably was done when the photos were 'younger'.
But yes, I saw plenty of intentional trimming. 8-10 years ago we were posting 'before and after' examples here on the board, but there wasn't much interest in the subject at the time - photo collecting was not as big as it is now. Yes, some were cropped long ago, but such items show age over the years - moreso than cards, because the photos were often handled roughly, and in many cases, weren't collectibles. I had a Newsboy cabinet of Ward that was stamped, mailed repeatedly, and still held up very well - but it was just considered a photo of a baseball player.
The reason is always money - Trimming brought more money to the sellers. If you cut off the rough edges, it looks like it's in better shape. Photos were later slabbed because some collectors seem to want everything behind plastic that can possibly be put there, and slabbers were ready to take money for that as well. Trimmed photos look better in the slabs than do those with rough edges, so, yes - I think slabbing led to even more trimming. It was all a simple progression in my opinion.
The photo-slabbers definitely considered 'grading' photos, but it was too tough to determine if a photo had been altered. Imagine strip-card grading with even more variables - it would have been a nightmare. By simply slabbing as 'authentic' (with types added), the pre-slab owners are free to do whatever they need in order to make their photos 'prettier'.
It's sad to find photos with pristine edges, then you look at the back and see half of an original Conlon signature. Or, the original newspaper clipping of the photo is glued to the back, and it's a larger image than the photo on the front. This is the sort of thing I look for when purchasing more expensive photos. If I don't want to see the rough edges, I'll matt it out myself.