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Posted By: warshawlaw

Of course it is "altering". The question is inaccurately put. The real question is whether removing a crease from a card should be acceptable to collectors and deemed not to reduce the value of the card. I've always felt that we need to move toward the model of the art world and recognize that legitimate conservation and restoration has a place in the hobby. Removal of creases and extraneous materials, if done safely and permanently, should be accepted as a legitimate thing and not considered in grading. In the art world, it is not only accepted as part and parcel of preserving artwork, it is actually deemed to enhance the value of the item. At present, however, these activities are not accepted in card collecting, and consequently are performed clandestinely, and as REA seems to prove, with an eye towards "laundering" the card through a grading service after the work is done so it can be sold with the implicit guarantee that it is unaltered. I therefore conclude that under the present scheme of things, removing a crease and trying to sell the card without disclosure is a deceptive practice. It may be that 25 years from now we all laugh at the notion that we were so backwards on this issue, just as we all laughed 15 years ago when the idea of slabbing was first introduced.