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tbobI had been told by a reputable source a few weeks ago that both companies would grade cards as "authentic" if they were altered but original. That is not true. GAI absolutely will not (unless maybe you are one of a select few people, I don't know about that) if you are Joe Average Collector.
PSA told me yesterday that it is entirely up to the grader and whether or not he feels like it (???) They have no standard policy. If you tell them in a note accompanying the card that the card is altered (trimmed, colored, hand cut, etc) it all depends on which grader you get and how he feels that day about it. I got this straight from the horse's mouth at PSA. I was inquiring in to the possibility of getting some handcut 1909 Obaks graded which Leon had sold me and are great cards but hand cut, as are probably 33-40% of all 1909 Obaks. You won't find any handcut 1910s and 1911s but it is amazing how many of the 1909s that pop up are hand cut. (And some which are graded were handcut at one time, I promise you that).