Skinned Mayo Cut Plug
 

I recently received a PSA grade for a 1894 Mayo Cut Plug for Brown. The card has a blank back, not the customary black back. I know there are very rare blank backs for this series, but I assumed my card was not blank, but skinned. However, PSA provided a grade for the card. Are skinned cards not graded A as they are altered? How do I tell if this is blank or skinned?
Thank everyone in advance for your help!https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...b808619696.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...cce7f9dafc.jpg


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Looks skinned and should have been graded an A.....Maybe they changed their standards on them?

Back appears to have the texture of a skinned card and is just skinned, maxing it’s grade at A.

PSA is just incompetent.

Thank you both for your input. I purchased the card assuming it was skinned. I submitted the card to PSA for authentication, allowing me peace of mind when I sold it that the card was genuine. I assumed it would be returned to me as an A, not a 1. I plan on selling the card in my EBay store, and I always want my descriptions to be totally accurate and clear. After this card was graded a 1, I researched Mayo Cut Plug backs and found there is precedent for blank backs, although 99% of backs are solid black.
So, in my EBay listing, I will alert potential buyers that this card may be (probably is, certainly is??) skinned, despite PSA grading.


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You have a better view than we can with it in hand, but you can tell it is skinned instead of a blank back by the texture of the back and the evidence of peeling layers on the edges, not just the color. It does not appear to be a blank back card. It is definitely skinned, but PSA's incompetence will surely pay off as 50%+ of the buyer base will not look at anything but the slab.

Skinned Mayo Cut Plug
 

Unfortunately I have not yet received the card back from PSA. At the moment, all I have is the PSA-provided picture. It was just graded. And as I have never owned a skinned card, I was unsure what to look for in my evaluation. I had assumed that was PSA’s job[emoji3]. Certainly I do not want any buyer to be mistaken. And the feedback I am receiving here is that I need to list this card as skinned, regardless of PSA. So that is what I will do.


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https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...c828501566.jpg
This is a picture of the card back prior to PSA encapsulation.


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Also, it just came to mind that I posted a football card question on our baseball card forum. I apologize. Generally I collect only baseball cards. And I have found the members on this forum to be the best card experts anywhere. Mayo Cut Plug baseball cards came out the year after my football card was issued.


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Using the big scan here and more detail -

Note the rough texture throughout the back that appears even in the scan. Mayo cards have fairly smooth backs.

Mayo's sets are thick, and some skinned cards are almost as thick as a proper card (the thickness varies very very slightly on N310 Mayo pugilists, I have not had enough N302's to make any conclusion on them but it may be the same). A back layer being peeled off can hard to tell just by thickness. Skinning is paper layers separating, and this usually doesn't create a clean back on a skinned card as the paper will usually betray layering, a rough texture, and unevenness.

On an N302 specifically, a white appearing back will usually be skinned as almost all proper cards had the black stock reverse. Mayo's are also less susceptible to natural skinning than most other 19th century cards, because they are not thin albumen photographs pasted onto a backing like the photographic cards.

One of the benefits of skinned Mayo's is that the backs are blank cardboard anyways, so you aren't really losing much eye appeal as there's nothing to see on the reverse, unlike cards with advertising or stats. Baseballers, footballers, pugilists, military uniforms or actresses the Mayo's look great and have aged better than most of the 19th century stuff.

That is just WRONG. Not sure how they gave it a numerical grade. Crap, they ding the cards if there's black ink added. Another grading error that shows grading companies aren't experts in the field because there's not much accountability for them.

I did find the following blank back Mayo’s cardhttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...09f8cec33d.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...9ebdd83074.jpg


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