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Posted By: cmoking

As far as Eric having more cards that are slightly shorter or slightly skinner than the average Goudey, that is not suprising at all, even if you assume none of his cards are trimmed.

My reasoning is that the smaller cards are more likely to be shielded from corner wear and other damage by the bigger cards. Imagine a full set in a shoebox. The bigger cards are going to be the ones that get touched by human hands more often. A person reaches in the box and grabs a stack of cards with his fingers and palm. His hand touches the edges and corners of the cards. But the bigger ones are going to be touched all the time, while the smaller ones hide between the bigger cards. Another example is that most people keep their cards in numerical order. So the #1 and #240 card get damaged more often due to the same phenomenon.

Thus, it is my opinion that if we assume no alterations are going on, that the higher graded cards will see a higher percentage of smaller sized cards than larger or regularly sized cards because the smaller sized cards are protected within a stack of cards moreso than other cards.

The tough question is: how much of an effect is this phenomenon, and how much of it is due to trimmed cards? Sorry, I don't have that answer.