Does erasing a pencil mark make a card ungradable if the erasing is apparent?

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Posted By: Josh K.

There is a raw card being auctioned that states this in the description:

"the front look like there was some writing that was erased"

Except for the one light area where s/o may have erased something, the card otherwise looks unaltered. If s/o did, in fact, erase writing from the card and it was evident, would it receive a grade if sent to psa,sgc,gai?

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Posted By: Wesley

I have seen a group of cards with pencil marks erased from the back. They was so well done that I could not see the pencil mark on most of the cards. PSA gave the entire group MK qualifiers still.

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Posted By: warshawlaw

the most recent PSA card I got like that was vg 3 MK graded. A couple of SGC cards I've sent in have had writing--they get slammed into 10-20-30 categories due to the writing. I expect to send in an N172 Hamilton shortly that will draw a 10 or 20 due to writing.

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Posted By: PASJD

It should grade, but with an MK qualifier, I believe.

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Posted By: Geoff Litwack

I had a group of Diamond Stars I sent in to SGC with pencil on the back that I erased (gently, with gum). The indents in the cards stayed and SGC properly downgraded them (in my opinion) three grades.

The cards are mine, by the way, and I would certanly disclose the erasure were I ever to sell them. I just don't like stray pencil marks!

Best,
Geoff

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Posted By: Josh K.

Thanks,

My concern is that the card Im thinking about bidding on actually looks like they color was lightened where the person attempted to erase. It doesnt look terrible, but definitely lighter. Is this just a downgrade or an alteration.

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Posted By: leon

If the erased mark looks like something was "added" then it could/should be rejected, imo. If something is taken off, that was supposed to be there, then I would think it would be ok, albeit downgraded. Just my opinion from the cards I have seen, and have. regards

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Posted By: Joe_G.

It's been my experience that SGC does a good job handling this situation. They downgrade writing severely with nothing higher than a 50 possible (the small mark has to be minor, barely detectable). SGC 20 & 30 are much more typical for a card with writing (depends on amount - one word, two words, one line, two lines, etc.) They are also very good at finding erased marks and will grade accordingly.

Having had several Old Judges graded with writing present and writing erased, I suspect SGC handles it as follows:

An erased name (say two words, first & last name) grades the same whether the pencil or ink markings are present and clear as day or erased and barely detectable. If there is enough evidence to show a name was on the back of an Old Judge, it will be downgraded equal to that of a card with the writing still present.

I think this is fair. This gives no incentive to erase and try to improve the grade. I myself have never taken an eraser to a card. Again, SGC is very good at finding erased marks on cards, they've found them on cards I didn't notice were erased. If SGC stopped grading an erased card, there would be yet another decent slice of Old Judges that wouldn't get slabbed.

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Posted By: BCD

there is usually still trace evidence of indentations.

OR the color of the paper has the oxidation removed where the erasing is done. This produces whiter areas where fading once existed. They can easily detect this.

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Posted By: Ron Lambert

I recently purchased a 1953 Bowman B/W card that was graded a GAI 7.5 It was bought from EBay and there was only a front scan. Well I get the card and I can still see the pencil and erasure marks on the back of the card. Was this a blatant error on GAI's part or do they actually allow such? Fortunately the seller took the card back and claimed not to know about the pencil/erasures marks.