[perezfan]

Aren't beaten up cards like this kind of "altered" anyway? I guess it depends on how you formally define "altered"...

Even if not intentional (like trimming, bleaching, recoloring) any card with an honest crease, wrinkle, scraped surface or dinged corner is sort of altered in its own way. I mean, the card is no longer in its original state. The unthinkable things that kids did to these cards back in the day (like flipping or putting them in bicycle spokes) just produced a different form of alteration.