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Posted By: Corey R. Shanus

My understanding, buttressed by some of Kevin's posts, are that many alterations can be detected without taking the card out of the slab. And many others, if not conclusively detectable with the card in the slab, exhibit such characteristics as to reasonably raise the possibility of alteration so as to make it incumbent to take the card out of the slab. If it turns out the card was unaltered, it can be simply reslabbed as before. So I do believe a grading company upon re-submission has a duty to look for alterations. If the examination through the plastic reveals nothing suspicious, then at that point while of course it would be great if the practice would still be to take the card out of the slab in the event something was missed, even if they don't, my guess is that most alterations would be detected and removed from circulation.

For the collector buying a slabbed card, he of course is not expected to have the equipment or the expertise to know if a card is altered, even if it did exhibit such characteristics as to make the alteration obvious to any expert examining it inside the slab. So that is why such a person has no way to protect himself from buying an altered card unless the grading company steps up and upon re-submissions looks for it. As to the arguments that all PSA is looking to do with the half grade bump up policy is to focus only on those characteristics that pertain to a bump up (e.g., centering, corner wear) and ignore everything else, I regard that explanation as quite lame. First, from the complaints some have registered about what they plan to charge, I think a more thorough look is warranted. Second, come on, how long a look does it take to detect most alterations if you know what you're looking for and have the proper equipment and expertise? Third, and most important, given the significant percentage of altered cards from certain issues, for those issues at least, I believe that if someday challenged the law very well might impute to them a duty to look for alterations.