Posted By:
HWHal,
I agree with you about many vintage collections containing trimmed cards in them. Lew Lipset sold a collection of vintage cards a couple of years ago where the cards were trimmed decades ago in order to fit into display pages.
I do not think that there are many outright counterfeit cards in these collections. In fact, I do not think that there are that many counterfeit cards in the hobby other than the reprint that were made by TCMA, Dover, Fritsch, etc. Generally, these are pretty easy for an advanced collector to spot.
I have heard many horror stories where an advanced collector had their cards graded only to find that their T205 Cobb had its corner colored in. I am not aware of any instances where an knowledgable collector had a fake card in their collection, though I am sure that it has happened.
My point is, I can see your concern about the condition of some of these legendary hobby rarities, but I would bet that the amount of outright fakes is extremel small.