Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth
I assume you would have an expert witness try to do all this. Who would that be? If so, here are the applicable standards at least in a federal court:
Rule 702. Testimony by Expert Witnesses
A witness who is qualified as an expert by knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education may testify in the form of an opinion or otherwise if:
(a) the expert’s scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge will help the trier of fact to understand the evidence or to determine a fact in issue;
(b) the testimony is based on sufficient facts or data;
(c) the testimony is the product of reliable principles and methods; and
(d) the expert has reliably applied the principles and methods to the facts of the case.
One issue I see right away is (c), because comparison with prior photos is not how anyone in the industry authenticates cards. So you would have an initial substantial hurdle of trying to persuade a judge that this new method was reliable.
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I think you'd have a much more difficult time convincing a jury that even the act of trimming->regrading->reselling a card is a crime.
I've had multiple people tell me that even cleaning cards is "wrong" and/or criminal behavior. I honestly just laugh and roll my eyes whenever I hear that. They come across to me as completely delusional. And I'm certainly in the majority viewpoint in this hobby today. But as soon as you step outside this hobby, the distribution of opinions immediately sways *much* more heavily in the direction of "who cares?" than it does "that's fraud!". I strongly suspect that any jury you'd ever encounter would view card doctoring of all stripes the exact same way. Even with the most egregious of acts like trimming.
Inside this hobby, we hear things like "fraudster!", "card molester!", "scum of the hobby!", etc. But outside the hobby, all you hear is, "clever!", "haha, sounds like he found a loophole!", and "smart!". Nobody else thinks this is fraud. Just us. And a (likely small) subset of us at that.