If the indentations or marks are visible, expect a 1.5-2 at best. This one got nailed for indentations:
As for vintage markings, I have found that some add value, especially postal cancellations in season that provide some provenance:
Sorry for the crappy scan on this one, but it is a Drysdale signed PC sent from Brooklyn in 1957, and I definitely would pay a premium for a card like this as compared to a signed but unused card, because I can date it to his rookie season:
Well, actually, I did pay a premium...and would happily do it again:
This PC with Babe Ruth (among others) was mailed in 1932, which enhances the desirability for me because it is demonstrably career contemporary:
I think of it in those terms because in boxing, markings associated with big fights have long been desirable and generate premiums regardless of condition. This one would get perhaps a 2 at best but the markings indicate it was mailed out a few weeks after Willard won the title from Jack Johnson in 1915 (4/5/15) and would command a significant premium as a result.
Just to bookend it, this one was mailed from Toledo, Ohio the day (7/4/19) that Willard lost the title to Jack Dempsey in Toledo.
