Well I know it goes back at least to the 70's...when I was a kid I used to trim them especially the 71 Topps because I hated the chipped corners. Also I used to try to flatten out the corner dings and creases on my 72 - 74 cards too..it was keeping them in those darn shoe boxes! There was no intention to deceive...Just wanted my collection to look nicer...I didn't imagine they would be slabbed, graded and scrutinzed to the ninth degree and sold for mega bucks by grown ups many years later...
