There are a lot of altered cards out there. You may have some in your collection. In fact if you have a significant number of older high-end cards that you purchased, slabbed or not -- then it's even more likely.
This stuff has been going on for years and has mostly been tolerated by the hobby or it else wouldn't now be so rampant, and and has now reached the stage of hypocrisy. A 52 Mantle appears to be have been "conserved". Wa wa wa. What about all the other thousands of altered cards over the years where there was a wink and a nod and nothing was said or done about it?
This just didnt' start happening overnight. PSA's first card ever was trimmed. The original sin. High quality counterfeits are the next big thing. So yes I think that collectors are fooling themselves to think this might be going away in their lifetime. As long as there are large profits to be made selling to collectors who are paying big bucks for old cardboard then it will continue.
It's been gaining steam steadily in recent years and nothing to stop it.
Don't expect grading companies to do anything. They do a volume business and their backlogs are already objectionable.
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Past transactions with ALR-Bishop, Fleerfan, Leerob538, Northviewcats, wondo, EconTeachert205
"Collectors were supposedly enjoying the pure hobby of baseball card collecting, but they were also concerned with the monetary value of their collections." House of Cards by John Bloom, 1997.
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