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TRtBob, I have bought a few ungraded vintage baseball cards over the years on eBay and I've had 3 or 4 come back from PSA as having been "Trimmed" and "Re-colored". It's funny, but every one of those altered cards were ones that I bought from sellers who were & had been selling only sports cards on eBay. But, I've never had a problem with PSA grading a card that I have bought from sellers who mostly had listed and previously sold items other then just sports cards.
The last 3 ungraded cards that I gambled on buying off eBay; were a N172 Old Judge Jimmy Ryan which got graded a 5, a HR Baker T3 which graded a 4, and a 1887 N28 Glasscock which got graded a 6. The sellers of these initially ungraded cards, had mostly small antique items listed & that's 95% of what they had previously sold on eBay. It stands to reason that a seller like this; would ever so often come across a few old cards at one of the estate sales which he or she goes to every weekend to primarily buy antiques like the ones which they were selling on eBay. On the flip side; a seller who has a nice quality, higher value ($150+) ungraded baseball card listed and whose business has mostly all been selling cards on eBay. Then; it stands to reason that a seller like this, would know that card is much more likely to sell at a much higher price as a graded card. But, why isn't?
This has been my experiences with buying ungraded cards on eBay which I hope sharing this with you, might be of some value to you & any other Net54 members at sometime in the future. TR