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Posted By: jay behrens

If a card is trimmed or altered in any way, if you follow true grading standards (at as I knew them back in the 80s), then it cannot be graded higher than poor and at that point a hidden wrinkle or other such defect doesn't really matter. I don't really envision 'authentic' as something that someone would be pursing if they are very condition concious. I have always bought my cards based on eye appeal and if it has a hidden wrinkle, that's no big deal to mean. If it is a major concern to someone then they need to stay away from 'authentic' cards. Even in the case of a really rare issue like 4 Base Hits or Yum Yum, I can't imagine that a hidden wrinkle is going to make that huge a difference on the price of card graded as 'authentic' that has been rebacked or altered in some other way.

Authentic grade should not be given to a card that has not been altered in any way, to avoid the problems that you are concered about.

An 'authentic' grade should be an automatic part, or at least an option (I can imagine there would be unhappy people getting back a card to find out it is latered, but then I persoinally would prefer to have all of the altred/trimmed cards slabbed so that everyone knew about it), and would seem to make economic sense in that if they do find a card to trimmed or altered in any fashion, instead of having to send that card back and putting all the man hours into examining it, they could just slab it as 'authentic' with a note to alterations.

Jay