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Posted By: Jeff Prillaman

Regarding the 1988 articles on card alterations that Jack dug out -- I wrote one of the articles and edited the other -- thanks to Jack for digging them up. I had literally forgotten all about it -- just don't share the investment article in the same publication -- I think I wrote a paragraph or two about high grade T206's - but the names Mike Greenwell and Chris Sabo vaguely come back to me as well.

Here is what I remember.

I surveyed around 60-75 dealers at the time who participated at shows in Virginia and NC. All the dealers whose opinions I sought were persons who dealt to some degree in vintage material, albeit the majority were dealers in 50's and 60's stuff -- a good 8-10 were dealers in pre-war stuff.

Practically every dealer I talked to had taken panty hose to a card to remove wax stains and/or taken an eraser to a card to remove pencil. Heck we have all seen cards with the prices written on the back in pencil.

While many said they were aware of removing wrinkles/creases - none admitted they had removed wrinkles (although there were a few cards that would trade hands and come back to the next show a little nicer) - but the consensus however was along the lines of "if you couldn't tell what was the big deal", Obviously this was long before third-party grading and the huge multipliers being paid for microscopic differences in cards. And to some degree the financial interest in "spooning" out wrinkles was no where near what it is today.

As to major restorations - other than trimming - most were only vaguely aware of how to detect alterations or what could be done. There were a few people (less than 5?) who were in the same vein of thought as with the creases and wrinkles -- if you couldn't tell then they wanted the nicer looking card.

I know today - if I have suspicions about counterfeit cards or tampering - I don't even buy the card - from the 86 Fleer Jordan rookie to anything vintage -- and I know I have taken quite a few cards over the years out of circulation.

But for any of us that have been in this hobby for any length of time - I think it is naive to not realize that most, if not all of us, have purchased and sold cards that have been tampered with or altered in some way. The practice of "spooning" out wrinkles was somewhat common when I got into the hobby in the late 80's -- how many times have some of those cards exchanged hands?

As an aside -- there was universal agreement that while the removal of marinara sauce was justified -- there was almost an even split when it came to alfredo sauce -- something about "anything that improved the taste of the cardboard substanitally should remain adhered to the card."