Posted By:
PaulI think George C. Millers are different because they had no coupon. The company just whacked off the bottom half of the card. In my opinion (and it's only my opinion), it would be reasonable to grade these cards as poor (but still gradeable). I'd still grade an otherwise excellent Zeenut with no coupon as excellent.
When you get right down to it, it's all just a matter of convention. If collectors generally view Zeenuts without coupons as whole cards, the smart grading companies will grade them accordingly. If collectors feel the same about George C. Miller's, then grading companies will probably follow suit there too. But, it seems to me it will be real tough to come up with a standard where a coupon-less card can never grade any higher than VG, or EX, or whatever grade above poor you pick. If a grading company or a dealer was using such a standard, he would have to be very clear and up front about what he was doing.