[Vintagedeputy]

I recently had this 1933 DeLong card come back in a sub and I want to question the description on the label. This card says Authentic, Evidence of Trimming. To me, trimming would be the cutting of a side by a person usually to make the card appear to have more even borders, or sharp corners, or to perhaps fit a certain frame of some kind.

This card obviously was not trimmed by hand, but instead has pieces missing, simply from wear and tear and handling, perhaps being stuffed in a boy’s back pocket for example.

On all four sides of the card, it has enough of a white border to meet the size of the black insert. This card was never trimmed by hand, but rather just has small portions missing from handling. Most of the missing portions are rather rough, but even the one at the bottom right, which has a more straight line to it is easily attributed to that portion being folded back, and breaking off more cleanly than the rest of the wear and tear.

Here’s the criteria for a 1:

GRADE
1

QUALITY
POOR

DESCRIPTION
This card usually exhibits many of these characteristics: heavy print spots, heavy crease(s), pinhole(s), color or focus imperfections or discoloration, surface scuffing or tears, rounded and/or fraying corners, ink or pencil marking(s), and lack of all or some original gloss, small portions of the card may be missing.

I don’t usually argue about grades received, but I think to say that this was trimmed is incorrect and I believe that it meets the SGC definition of a 1 grade.