I'm not clear on precisely how, but paper can be added either from a common, or from some other source. Then the missing bits get painted in.
I've tried a few things on cheap 80's commons and it's not easy to get a result that's not instantly spotted.
Some restorers are very skilled, others aren't. There was a place local to me that restored antiques and had before pictures in the window along with the results. Amazing what they could do. And to some degree it's accepted as long as it's clear the item is repaired/restored. Some fields it's more acceptable than others. Cars are almost always restored, vintage posters are usually backed with linnen.
The why is a tough one. For stuff where some degree of restoraton is accepted it's usually done to repair damage or help preserve the item. Lots of the old posters are too fragile without the linnen backing. And really old paintings usually have lots of airborne dirt on the surface that damages them and seriously alters the way they look.
With a Wagner card I'd think that an owner might buy a less expensive one and have it restored so it's more appealing visually. Most of us here would probably "get it" if they saw the unrestored one, non collectors usually don't.
Collector- "wow a Wagner! beat and very trimed, but still cool"
non-collector- "Jeez! someone paid 100,000 for that?!
I have the same problem with the bikes I collect. The teams usually beat the heck out of them and use the parts on something else once it's outdated. The first one I got was used to win an event in the 83 Pan-Am games. I showed it to my friends when I got it and they didn't get why I'd paid good money for a beat up frame with no parts. Once I built it up with appropriate parts -some of them replicas I'd made- They thought it was really cool.
Steve B
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