I started a thread about this very topic last month, and it led to some good discussion:
http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=203387
As several people said there, the grading companies have questionable records when it comes to grading Old Judges; they will sometimes give an AUTH grade to a card that is probably unaltered (due to the often erratic way Old Judges were cut), and they sometimes give a number grade to a card that is definitely altered (one of which was posted in that thread). Like just about all Old Judge collectors, I prefer a sharp photo over a faded one any day of the week, and I don't pay much attention to technical grades (though almost all of my Old Judges are raw anyway).