How Badly does Trimming Affect Value?

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Posted By: davidan

I have a 62 Topps Maris card that upon first look would grade at a NrMt 7. But when you look more closely and line-up with another card you can tell that a very very minimal trim has been taken off the top of the card to square up what I believe to have been a centering issue ...

My question is does that totally ruin the value of the card, or what does it drop it to ...

by the way this is my first post I believe. Grew up collecting Cards in the 80 - 87 time period. Took a long break, now I am getting back into it, and looking to complete some sets I was never able to touch as a kid ... so I am sure I'll be looking for any tips, guidance or cards to help me on that journey

Thanks in advance.

David

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Posted By: leon

Welcome to the board. I mainly have experience in pre-war cards but if they are trimmed you can take about 80% to 90% off of the value of an otherwise vg one....I would *guess that post war could be about the same, maybe even more of a deduction, since they are more plentiful than the really old ones, in general.......regards

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Posted By: Darren

As a pure collectible your card has value, as an investment--nada.

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Posted By: TONY Galovich

years ago a trimmed card was worth 90% less than a normal card
But I am starting to see collectors pay 30% or more for trimmed cards especially one's that look ok to the naked eye
My question is why pay so much?
Are they reselling them?

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Posted By: kirk

I never would have thought people would say 80-90% !? By the way nice to meet you I'm pretty new here too and come from the same 80s era of collecting as a kid.

A great resource is alteredcards.com. If you're not al;ready familiar, bookmark it. I've found it super helpful... It's run by a forum member here..
What shocks me most is the fact that so many doctord cards have been slipped past psa.

90% LESS!!! Sheesh, I never would have thought it.

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Posted By: sagard

"But I am starting to see collectors pay 30% or more"

I'm sure you have some unscrupulous buyers, but a trimmed card that looks nrmt will still have far more eye appeal than a fair/poor card. Eventually the market will decide what a trimmed card is worth.

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Posted By: Paul S

Welcome to the board.

A Topps 62 trimmed Maris may be able to command a little more money than the average trimmed card (geez, that sounds pathetic to say) because it is card #1 and it does have 61 homers in the stats the last non-steroid homer record I'm aware of (even more pathetic to say). So, someone who doesn't necessarily need to have it holdered might settle for that, wanting a nice looking example.

Not to compare the following card to the Maris, but along the same line, did anyone see that gorgeous looking Topps 52 Mantle that was in the Huggins and Scott(?) auction several weeks ago? I forget the exact selling price but someone paid between $2,500-3,500 for a card that cannot be holdered. The lot showed the reason SGC(?) returned it, citing extensive alterations. So, I guess some people out there are willing to pay for an unholdered altered icon rather than a holdered Authentic.