A Troubling Hobby Developement

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Posted By: barrysloate

The past several days have brought to light a number of disturbing events in the vintage card hobby. First and foremost, the embarrassing fiasco with the bogus T206 Wagner will showcase many of the seedier aspects of the baseball card hobby. On a related thread, respected hobby veteran Brian Goldner discussed some graded cards he purchased that were clearly tampered with. Steve Verkman, who has handled his share of vintage cards, stated that many of the higher grade slabbed cards have been altered and missed the scrutiny of the authenticaters. Likewise, although I must leave the details confidential, I was involved in a large deal that fell through because it was purported that some very valuable high grade cards were no good even though they were all encapsulated. As cards become more expensive, there is a greater incentive to alter and counterfeit them in ever more sophisticated and difficult to detect ways. How is the hobby prepared to deal with these very dangerous issues?