Posted By:
Frank WakefieldIf folks would collect cards, instead of slabs, then people wouldn't be so inclined to trim, soak, wash, stretch, bleach, and otherwise tamper with the cards.
Seriously, the love and desire of the slabs and the numbers, "9" or "80", that is what prompts the cheats to tamper with the cards.
Knowing what you're buying helps avoid this mess. If you hold an E145-1 and an E145-2 (1914 and 1915 Cracker Jack cards) in your hand, then you can better understand the card. Same for a T206. I vividly remember holding a Wagner. Not a slab, a card. And I am certain if you guys above held this "new Wagner" you could instantly tell, just by feel, that it was doctored.
So I think you guys are stuck with the tampered cards as long as you collect slabs. Honesty, isn't tampering and bleaching and all more prevelant nowadays, now that we have slabbing?