Posted By:
Julie VognarHowever, I have a 1935 Goudey puzzle card of Ruth., McManus, etc., number 4J (the rare one), in g-vg condition. On the back, someone, pushing down hard on the penci, wrote "1934." I erased it, and cannot see the pencil marks anymore, but the indentation is still there.
This must have been one of the first semi-vintage cards I ever bought. For one thing, I didn't know it was special (4J), and for another it's in pretty bad shape. The corners are deeply rounded, and the sidea are worn.
It has its uses, though. Mark Macrae was looking through my cards on day, and came to that one, and remarked it must be worth at least $300. "Hey, lend me $300 on it?" I said (there was a Lipset auction coming up). I paid him back fairly promptly, and sometime in the next year, i asked again. At first, I always sent the card, and he opened it and put it away. But the last time, he sent it back in the same package I sent it to him. Now, I just ask him to lend me $300.
It was my lending card. And, since it's my birth year, I have eight other Goudey puzzle cards.
There are often little marks on the back of T202s, since it's an unnumbered but popular set. I just leave them alone; I guess i sort of feel they're part of the card's history. But if I WANTED to get rid of a mark, I'd feel pretty squirmy that some grading company was going to write "MK" on it, when i couldn't see one myself.
The hysteria among grading houses about blank-backed 19th century cards drives me WILD. I'm afraid an otherwise great Old Judge with a small mark on the back will sell for almost nothing--even if I don't grade it. And my Zeenut Fred McMullen that Buck Barker wrote all over the back of, and I think ought to be worth a premium because of that, I'm afraid it will be heavily discounted.