Trimmed or Miscut?
 

I'm sure most of you saw this auction while it was up, I bid low because I wasn't convinced that the Mcgraw wasn't altered. I was pretty sure it was miscut, but not sure enough to warrant that sale price (im in college).

http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/4...zbqhye4.th.jpg

Both with Tolstoi backs.

I'm curious to hear what the opinions of some other more experienced collectors are.

I think it's trimmed. Some corners rounded, others sharp.

But with a Tolstoi back it's still interesting.

Tough to tell from that picture. It's a bit shorter than the Maloney, but not by a whole lot. The lower corners being worn more than the top isn't outside what I'd be comfortable with, as the bottom would be against the bottom of a box if it was stored standing up. That close to the name I'd think the lower edge was trimmed, but that's the one that looks ok.

If I had it in hand I could tell, but not from that picture. Did they have a back picture too? Sometimes that view makes trimming clearer.

As a Tolstoi it's interesting, but you'd have to balance how likely trimming was against your interest and budget. Another concern for later on is wether it's got enough size to get a numeric grade if it isn't trimmed. I'm thinking it may be just a bit too short either way.

Probably not worth the risk for a college student, but for someone with a few bucks to risk and a bit of gambler in them maybe.

I try to avoid bidding a lot on cards that look at all suspect unless it really looks great. And even then I bid pretty low.

Steve B

McGraw
 

The McGraw looks like a good card to me. Full size. It's hard to detect a slight trim from ebay scans, though. Probably a good one to have gambled on if it was going cheap and you like those type of gambles. I try to buy some cards raw and see what the grading companies think of them. Usually most of the cards get a grade, but a few are rejected. SGC might not mark it down very much for the miscut. Might get an SGC 50. PSA would give it an mc for sure, perhaps a PSA 4mc but those are just wild guesses based on the front of the card only.

I did have a conservative bid in at only $70, $75 with shipping. But it ended up at about $150.