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T206Collector...for the response, Daniel. It was very well written and thought out. But I think it glosses over a major problem -- most of the alterations in the hobby have already taken place and we will never know about them. We will never know whether the vintage cards we collect today had erasures made or scrap book removed in the 1930's, 1940's, 1950's, etc.
To create the kind of plan for going forward that is being discussed today forgives all of the prior alterations, like a historical game of musical chairs, and leaves the current holder/possessor of the cards with a greater ethical obligation than existed years ago.
It would be great to understand the history behind the cards, but what is really going on here is certain people want to believe that their cards were preserved the best since 1909 or thereabouts. But there will never be a way to determine whether this history that you want to believe is the actual truth of the history of that card. The best we can hope for is a third-party service that does the best job possible certifying a standard that is acceptable to most vintage card collectors.
Just one more question please -- you may not like the "what you don't know won't hurt you" philosophy, but how do you possibly expect to know what has happened between 1909 and this very minute with respect to your cards?