Choosing Up Sides
Team 1: Collectors, Dealers, Investors, AHs, TPAs who publicly admit that just possibly 1% bad apples are getting past
a. the vigilant graders who are doing their best to prevent the hobby contamination of altered cards, but
b. it is the bad evil card doctors at the root of the problem, not us
c. especially not me.
Team 2: Veteran baseball hobbyists who are willing to risk ostracism and access to the Golden Goose because of
a. principles of honesty and integrity, which no longer have relevance in the hobby industry, or
b. just possibly a genuine love of baseball history and its artifacts.
Collectors have been taking sides for some time. About ten years ago Jim Crandall, a passionate and outspoken collector of cards of Grade 7 or higher, convened a meeting at his offices to ask Team 1 about "alterations." Dave Foreman, to his credit, passed around a large hand full of recolored basketball cards with remarkably sharp corners. A naive collector like myself could only gasp. I asked Doug Allen a rhetorical question -- "what percentage of the cards in the average collector's portfolio are altered?" Barry Sloate was the only person in the room asking the really tough questions -- and getting nowhere.
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