Question about high end graded cards being trimmed

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Posted By: Joann

I know it's been debated here at some length that many PSA 8+ cards are trimmed, with most of the discussion revolving around the T206's. But I have a question about how that could be.

Assume for the sake of argument that if a card grades 8+, it has been trimmed on all four sides. I know that may not be true in each and every case, but it's probably true for a lot of the higher end cards if they got that way by trimming.

Is it really possible for graders to miss evidence of trimming on all four sides of so many cards? They routinely kick back lower end cards for evidence of trimming - maybe because the card draws attention because sharpness of corners in inconsistent with overall condition of the rest of the card.

But trimming does/may leave some sign besides being crooked, short, etc. How can the graders miss so many trimmed edges? How many 8+ T206's are out there (sorry - I haven't looked at pop reports)? Multiply that by four edges each, and then take whatever percentage you think are trimmed and that's the total number of trimmed edges missed. Seems like it would be pretty high to me.

Are there maybe that many people with extremely sophisticated trimming methods that can get them by the graders? Seems like that equipment, those techniques, etc would be pretty scarce and that most trimming would be done with more coarse equipment/methods.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Joann