Posted By:
warshawlawIf you did not see the cutting done or did not do the cutting yourself, you cannot competently testify that the card was trimmed. You don't have firsthand knowledge. What you can do is offer opinion testimony that the card has been trimmed, based on your experience in prior observations of other cards from the same set as the card in question.
I have sold cards that I considered to be trimmed. Since I did not do the trimming, I state that "in my opinion the card has been trimmed". I usually then state that I have priced the card as such and that there are no returns on the card because I am selling the card as damaged goods. That is the only fair way to deal with trimming suspicions.
As far as a card service goes, they too are merely offering an expert opinion. It carries exactly as much weight as you want it to carry. If two people agree that SGC's expert opinion will control the issue of alterations, they have invested SGC with the power to resolve the issue. Just because SGC says it is trimmed, however, does not mean that it is trimmed. It means that their opinion on that given day is that the card is trimmed. I have had a number of cards that in my expert opinion were unaltered come back from SGC as "trimmed", only to be authenticated by SGC afterwards in a new submission. I also have at least one high grade T206 in my collection that I believe is trimmed but that SGC has authenticated. I also have formulated the opinion that a card is trimmed and had SGC back my opinion.