Didn't pass the sniff test?

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Posted By: Steve M.

Didn't know that SGC smells the cards.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Authentic-Vintage-Baseball-Card-T206-Mattern-Boston_W0QQitemZ170062602180QQihZ007QQcategoryZ868 40QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

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Posted By: scott brockelman

SGC was quoted in "something other than water" does that not make soaking in water O.K. ????

I think that pretty much defines there standing on the matter.

Scott

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Posted By: Joe D.

thats not necessarily what SGC is saying.

I can't answer for them....

but - I can think of a bunch of innocent reasons why water might come into contact with a card.

cleaning agents yielding a pristine looking card is another story altogether.


so maybe their tolerance level for evidence of water touching a card.... and their tolerance level for evidence of a cleaning agent touching a card is different -

and I think that is reasonable.

just my opinion.

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Posted By: T206Collector

...and when I saw that it had received 202 visits since I listed it, I suspected there might be a discussion about it here.

I purchased two nice raw Polar Bears (Mattern and Latham) a couple of years ago -- I don't recall if I got them on ebay or at the Gloria Rothstein show in White Plains. In any event, when I tried to get them graded a few months later, they came back with "soaking, cleaning" on the label.

I was confused because I had never had a problem with soaking in water. I brought the Mattern and Latham to an SGC table in White Plains and spoke with one of their senior graders. I told him that I had never had a problem with soaking cards in water, and asked him what they had found here.

He said something other than water had been used. And, in fact, he did smell the cards to see if he could detect bleach. He could not smell bleach specifically, and I could not either, but he said that some sort of chemical had been used. When you hold the cards under a bright light, the purple in the Polar Bear back looks a little shinier than usual.

For the record, I did interpret my conversation with SGC on these cards as "water okay - chemicals bad" -- a philosophy I already held. Which is not to say that SGC specifically endorses water soaked cards, as much as they either (a) cannot detect such manner of soaking; or (b) are okay with such manner of soaking.

Obviously, I disclosed SGC's opinion on this cards in my listing.

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Posted By: Dave G

Obviously neither SGC nor PSA worry too much about water stained or whatever cards, as I have seen many Baseball cards slabbed that bear water stains....

But it is funny to watch people sniffing apparently clean cards..........maybe there is something in the cards that gives them a high?

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Posted By: peter chao

Guys,

At least SGC is trying to do their job. If the card had been sent to PSA instead, who knows what they would have done.

Peter