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Old 05-18-2013, 08:49 AM
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nolemmings nolemmings is offline
Todd Schultz
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Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Phoenix
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If you think the holder might be compromised, it's worth asking what is now inside, a card that is A) fake; B) altered or C) real and unaltered, but of lesser grade. I'd say none of the above, and that you're OK.

1. The card is real. This was by far my favorite Topps set when I collected post-war. I've handled a couple-three thousand of these and have a box of several hundred next to me as I type. Others of course have at least as much experience and may feel differently, but I see your card as crisp and bold and real. A back scan would be nice but really should not be necessary here. The very few attempts at fake '61s that I have seen have the image somewhat muddy looking and/or have slight bleeding of the black ink. This is often tell tale but not always determinative--I have a "real" Bobby Bolin somewhere with these attributes. If you collect this set-as opposed to just Yaz or HOFers or Red Sox--compare this card to the rest, and you should see that it's fine.

2. The card is unaltered. It is the proper size, which diminishes any chance of trimming. Ironically, I have seen '61 Yaz cards that measure either short or narrow and yet are not trimmed. It is also highly unlikely that the card was oversized and trimmed down. If that happened, I would expect to see it looking like an 8, with very sharp corners, and one side or end might look sharper than the other. Here there are four corners with just slight touches, which is very difficult to replicate, and the left edge is slightly rough, which is typical of the issue and also likely hard to "create". So no trimming. I can't say with 100% certainty that there has been no color added or erasure without seeing the card in person, but a black light should answer those questions.

3. The card is properly graded. Subjective of course, but I see this as a solid 6. Very slight wear on the corners keeps it from a 7, and I believe it is a long way from a 5. A person trying to slip this card into a 6 holder would have been better served just re-submitting it if did not grade well the first time, IMO. It is possible there's a micro-wrinkle not visible from the scan, but then again I have seen many a slabbed card where the grader missed that anyway, so that would not make me conclude that someone was pulling something here.

All in all, nice card!!!!
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