Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeremy102175
Erasing, trimming, and soaking are all part of the card's journey, but only if you can tell that they occured. In each of those cases though the idea is to conceal or remove the card's imperfections. But yes, if you could tell that there was once pencil on the back of a card and that someone had attempted to erase it, that would certainly be a part of the card's history and journey. A card that has been soaked, trimmed and erased has had its 100+ year journey removed, and is now essentially a 21st century card in my eyes. I completely understand your point, but I tend to think of cleaning cards the same way coin collectors frown on cleaning coins.
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Thanks for the thoughtful reply and I see your point. To relate it to my collection, I sometimes bid on GU flannels that have vintage team number changes. This was commonplace back in the pre-1972 era. But I never bid on jerseys that have modern restorations, like new numbers or lettering added. As you say, that makes the shirt 21st century.