Posted By:
Mark MacraeIf the entire player/team lettering on the bottom of the card is erased, can that erasure be detected? I ask because it occurs to me that if it cannot, then what's to prevent a skilled crook from erasing a "Magee, Phila. Nat'l" and replacing it with a "Magie, Phila. Nat'l"?
Corey,
Although the question was directed at someone more familiar with a wide range of alterations, I can POSITIVELY state that more than one Magie variation has been altered in that fashion, and it wasn't just recently. The problem goes back to 1990. Not to sound like a longtime lurker (who was removed from this board a few years ago), but he was correct in the story that he shared. One of the two 'dealers' involved in this scam is out of the hobby, but was essentially outed. The other dealer from Michigan and the craftsman, also from Michigan haven't surfaced in many years, but are likely still out there. Hobby good-guy Charlie Conlon was very tense during the weekend of the 1990 National in Dallas when this problem was at it's first pinnacle. Two days later, he and three other people familiar with the 'real' Doyle were all satisfied that Conlon's Doyle was real. This was years before 'professional' grading took root, and involved conversations with people who owned, or had owned to that time tens of thousands of T-206 card (In two cases more than 100,000 cards). On a card with significant value, it is up to the individual purchaser to make certain he knows what he is buying before he spends that kind of money. Due diligence. There will never be 100% certainty with ANY card, professionally graded or not....
Mark