How long have cards been trimmed?

[Chris Counts]

I was just looking at a 1933 Tattoo Orbit card I have of Lefty Grove. It's graded "A" and it's from the Lionel Carter collection. It's clearly trimmed ...

According to his biography, Lionel started collecting in 1933 in Illinois. The first pack he bought contained 1933 Delongs. So the way I figure it, as devoted as he soon became to collecting, he probably finished the 1933 Tattoo Orbit set early on, especially since its distribution seemed to be focused in the Midwest. So what was Lionel doing with a trimmed card? I'm sure he could have acquired it late in life, but just as likely, it was in his collection for many decades ...

It's hard for me to imagine that trimmed cards existed even in the 1970s since there was hardly anybody I recall from that era that really cared about perfectly sharp corners. Any thoughts? Are trimmed cards a product of the slabbed card era? Or have dealers and collectors always sought to "improve" cards?

[Matt]

Originally Posted by Chris Counts

It's hard for me to imagine that trimmed cards existed even in the 1970s since there was hardly anybody I recall from that era that really cared about perfectly sharp corners. Any thoughts? Are trimmed cards a product of the slabbed card era? Or have dealers and collectors always sought to "improve" cards?

Cards were 'trimmed' well before the grade mattered - kids would cut them for any number of reasons - to fit into an album, to have them be the same size as other cards or because they didn't think the borders were of any import.

[FrankWakefield]

113 years, or thereabouts.


Seems to me the first cards to be trimmed were Old Judge cards, where folks wanted to remove the brand name in an attempt to minimize the likelihood that young collectors would turn to smoking cigarettes.

If that 'how long' doesn't suit, how about 102 years. That would be about when collectors of ballcards would trim down American Caramel cards just a bit, so they would be the same size as the white border tobacco cards.

[Leon]

I think cards have been trimmed for at least 140 yrs.....I have seen many of the 1869 Peck and Snyders that are trimmed, for one reason or another. Back in the very early days of collecting they didn't really care....It was fun and the money wasn't too much of the equation....

[Peter_Spaeth]

Perhaps what the question is getting at is how long have cards been trimmed with deceptive intent.

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Perhaps what the question is getting at is how long have cards been trimmed with deceptive intent.

I witnessed card doctoring - with Deceptive Intent - as early as 1978-79, which is about the same time I resumed collecting after doing so as a young 'un from 1968-1972.

When I started attending card shows in the early 1980s, I always brought along one of those old clear card measurers, as trimming was already a common concern.

I knew a Pennsylvania card shop owner in the mid-1980s who hired a local kid to sit in the shop's back room and color touch the edges and corners of the owner's 1971 and 1975 Topps baseball cards. I confronted the owner about it, but he didn't think it was any big deal - he was just makin' 'em look nicer.

[HRBAKER]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Perhaps what the question is getting at is how long have cards been trimmed with deceptive intent.

For as long as any type of money has been invloved.