[marvymelvin]

Hello people of the net54 world. I just have a few concerns I want some thoughts on. It seems that there are a bunch, and I mean a bunch of trimmed small format cards (48-52) coming up trimmed. I have purchased a few large lots of raw cards from these sets from local and not so local people, eBay, Craigslist, in person, etc. And every time I find a portion of them coming up short.

One seller I complained to gave me the explanation that collectors of all raw materials allow up to 1/8 of an inch short. He gave me a refund no problems, but suggested that I stick with PSA 5 or 6 if it bothered me so much.

Another sort of local guy advertises on CG showing stacks of these Bowmans looking "clean and sharp". I met up and bought a bunch and about 30% were short from between 1/8 to 1/16 inch short. He got angry when I called him a few days later (I felt bullied into letting the issue go), and gave me the old story of Bowman being notorious for unpredictable cuts. Well as far as I know this is not true, especially for these years.

I understand the draw of buying big lots of clean cards, and respect those of you who don't like graded cards, but I now stick with PSA or SGC cards due to this issue. If you are happy with knowing you are paying for and collecting cards that will inevitably be rejected by PSA if and when you need to grade them than that is ok. But I am not. Call me crazy, but it seems like there is someone out there buying bulk raw early Bowmans and cleaning them up a bit. After awhile these have infiltrated many collections of sellers and buyers. Beware. Any thoughts or similar experience?