[Fred]

Scott,

I think that the card graders didn't want to lose out on business so they began providing the AUTH labels so people would submit those cards. I know that SGCs been doing it for a few years now. I'd call them about grades and if they said they saw evidence of trim I'd ask them to just put it in an AUTH holder. Now you don't have to ask them to do it, they just do it.

I don't mind trimmed cards as long as they are lightly trimmed. Also, those AUTH holders seem to drop the price on a card well below what you might pay for a lower graded example. I suppose it depends upon the trim job. As far as OJs go I don't mind a slight trim job, what I don't like are the trim jobs that remove the ad at the bottom of the OJs or the trim jobs where ALL four edges are trimmed down and there is no border (between edge of card and image) on the card.

I'm not going to get started on the AUTH and ALT designations for grading companies....