Posted By:
E, DanielI accept the general sentement shared by the posters thus far, though I'm not sure I agree - and I'm sure I'll be the only one.
While paper loss removes image or text, and leaves a clearly damaged surface, glue residue where mild is hardly more distracting to my eye than dirt or light ageing or foxing....
Nothing has been removed from the original piece in this instance, and the only addition is one that was completely expected at the time. Being glued into an album was perhaps the MOST likely method of keeping tobacco cards of all shapes, designs and sizes, and I'm not exactly sure why we penalize cards so heavily for the practice. Again, I would emphapsize that glue remnants on the stock - where transparent so as to be able to clearly view the image underneath, and not missing paper/surface - is the only situation I am referring to. Paper added that might come from the album page, and which covers some part of the surface so as to make that section unobservable, has interfered with being able to see the card as it was intended and thus should be heavily graded down for that reason.
So, if the card displays ex-mt or better in all other examinations, I would be more than happy if SGC were to allow a vg/ex, or ex, as a possible grading. A 10, or 20, seems a little ridiculous to me as the other end of grading deliberations.
BVG, in this instance, I feel has the better balanced view, whereas when centering is of issue I tend to feel GAI has the more reasoned approach, and for corners I have no doubt SGC is the most exact and consistent. The whole suface thing I feel is sufficiently grey that all the companies find their own happy understanding - and even we as collectors are far from unanimous on what constitutes the most accurate read. Just MHO.