Doug Allen Did the Right Thing

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Posted By: Cat

I bought this Zeenut from Mastro in the October auction. It was in the PSA holder shown below. I wanted it in an SGC holder so I cracked it out and sent it off. SGC gave me a call and stated that it had color added and did I still want it slabbed. I got it slabbed but was not happy to find out about the altering.

I called Mastro stating that "I want a solution" never being any more specific than that in a discussion of "a fix" for buying an altered card.

I stated my position to Mastro Auctions: Buying a Zeenut that has been identified as trimmed is not uncommon (and certainly it was disclosed), in my view, since the coupons are cut off in some fashion on the majority of the Zeenuts. I further stated that buying a card with undisclosed adding of color is a completely different alteration and in my view decreases the cards value far more than the disclosed trim. I further stated I bought the card from Mastro and I wanted a solution from Mastro.

In essence their response was simple:

1) Who's to say SGC got it right versus PSA (I told him "I think third party graders may miss flaws but I trust that third party graders do not determine that they see flaws which don't exist).

2) We're not going to take the card back (I had never recommended this as the "solution" to start with).

In the end I stated that I paid for the card plus 17.5% implying that a partial refund would be acceptable. I was told "no" and my final statement was "I thought there would be a better solution than being told 'to go take a hike.'"

We wished each other good day and that was that.

I would be curious as to what others think about my beliefs as to the decrease in value (over and above the trim) due to the adding of color. TO ME, it is a complete different level of alteration than the trimming. I will add that I had knowledge (from a board member) that the card had not been trimmed other than the bottom where the coupon formerly existed prior to buying the card from Mastro.

Shown below, is the card, one scan is in the sleeve, circled by SGC, as to where the color was added.