a very, very happy ending

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Posted By: Julie

Remeber I told you about the three double-prints in the '52 Topps set--the J. Robinson, the Mickey, and--one other guy--and how, unlike most double prints (yes, they are all also high numebers), there are VERY noticable differences between the two versions of each?

And how Levi Bleam had send me a Jackie PSA 6, $1200, who looked like he had an Indian grandfather and a white guy back there somewhere, and whyen I beefed, he explained that what i wanted was variation 2--lotta little things sort of wrong with my ebony-skinmned Robinson, the most noticable of which are: a longer right black line around the protrait than left line, so the cross bar on top not only slopes, but also usually sticks out beyound the left bar and 2) a little black comma in the lower rigtht-hand corner?

So Levi shows me this gorgeous PSA 7 Robinson, $2000 (more than i wanted to pay--natch), and I say that's the one--but where's the little comma? Oh, he was so upset! HOLD THAT CHECK (he already had 1200 from me for the PSA 6 he'd sent that i didn't think was up to snuff)--I gotta send this card back to PSA; it's been altered. If you let the light glance off it just right you can see the difference in the texture in the lower right. (hmm, I', thinking, it doersn't bother me, and who KNOWS how many Jackies have their commas erased (THESE ARE ONLY THE VERY DARK SKINNED JACKIES--DON'T START LOOKING ON YOUR SORTA RED_SKINNED JACKIES). O.K., I said--keep my money. I want that Jackie--that one. The missing comma doesn't bother me a bit, and I never encapsulate cards. I can't guarantee no one ever will again, but i won't. It's a deal, and you'll get a deal;, says Levi, unless PSA wants to destroy it.

This is three months ago, He calls this morning. PSA insisted on putting a tiny ink x on the lower right-hand corner in back (I may send it to SGC, just to see what they say), but the gorgeous card is mine for $650! I get $550, a VERY slightly altered, beautiful '52 Jackie Robinson, and Bob's your uncle!

Mark wants it when I die, I think..sorry. It is one gorgeous card, let me tell you: flawless brilliant red bacground, plenty of gloss, ebony skin, perfect focus and centering...I feel almost as floaty at when I got my Peck and Snyder, encased in Mylar, from Jay Miller. Float, float!

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Posted By: Jay Miller

It makes me feel good to know that I am holding on to that number one place in your heart, albeit by a slender thread. Sounds like a great card-enjoy it!

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Posted By: warshawlaw

I'll always take a really nice looking card with a minor technical flaw over its big-bucks cousin. Good to hear a nice result for once.

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Posted By: SCOTT BROCKELMAN

levi bleam is a hobby icon, and probably much more responsible for the popularity of collecting baseball cards than kit young or alan rosen or any of the others would dare dream. i recall seeing his adds 25++ years ago, and to this day, he may not have the exposure of some of the others, but he is a true gentleman of the hobby, he is approachable and knowledgable on many,many issues. there are many softspoken hobbyist that you learn much more from than their egotistical counterparts and he is a great example.

scott

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Posted By: Paul

I can't believe PSA would deface your card, even with just a tiny X. They have no right to do that. PSA's opinion that it was altered is only their opinion. And even if they're 100% correct, that still doesn't make it right. The card is your property, and if it is flawed, they've got no right to give it a second flaw.

And what's the point of marking the card? Is PSA so incompetent that they are afraid they won't reject this card as altered next time, without an "X" staring them in the face to remind them? Maybe I should conduct an experiment, sending in a common 52 Topps card with a little X on it, and see if it is mechanically rejected as altered.

Sorry to vent so much, but I just find this outrageous. And if they had actually destroyed the card, as Levi thought they might, I think PSA would risk serious liability. It would be very easy for you to prove that they willfully destroyed a piece of property that they didn't own, worth (at least) $650.

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Posted By: MW

edited

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Posted By: Julie

I think if they'd destroyed the card, i would have been horrified, because, let's face it, how many people even know about the differences in the double prints? Did they catch it the first time around? No, I did. They must realize that there are many, many encapsulated ebony Jackies who have had their commas removed, either for aesthetic reasons, or for aesthetic reasons. Now I haven't seen the back of my card yet (since Levi got it back from the all-powerful PSA), but if the "x" is anything more than a tiny mere mark, really far in the corner, I will make a fuss.

I think PSA is just trying to make the best of an impossible job: seeing that altered cards are not encapsulated and graded. I'm not sure that my old Jackie (vg-ex), which I sold for a song to Ben, had a comma, and it was from that card that i learned to expect the ebony skin (and a few descriptions of Jackie as--BLACK. My guess--I never saw him in person, though i saw his movie, is that he wasn't blue-black, like Manute Bol, but a true black. Roger Kahn has a good description of first impressions of Jackie in The Boys of Summer, in which his backness figures promenently). I've asked Ben several times (since i found out about the double prints), whether his new Jackie (my old Jackie) has a comma, and I think he may be afraid to tell me it doesn't. Levi showed me a row of 20 corners with the black comma--I'm sure he's correct about the comma being a necessary part of variation 2--but how many t206s do you own, just barely touched here or there with a pen or ballpoint, which left a little mark and lowered the appeal of the card? I'm sure many people thought the comma was a post=printing accident, and sought to correct it--hopelesssly, of course, since, if you hold the card a certain way, you can see the difference in texture where the black has been removed. To further confuse the issue, if the card is centered far enough to the bottom, the comma will be bypassed...it is confined to the lower border, no matter how much space that border occupies)...

I don't know, but i have a feeling that levi did some special pleading on my behalf--to keep the card from being destroyed, swearing I would never encapsulate it, or sell it to someone who would. I should like, someday, to submit it to Mastro with the whole story. I think it's a gas, and would fetch a good price, too! ($650! What a deal...)

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Posted By: Julie

Although Levi agreed to keep my money, and knew i wanted that card, it was by no means mine until yesterday. I also thought that Bleam was as good a source as any for '52 Robinsons, and he might come up with one I liked (nearly) as well.

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Posted By: runscott

No grading company has the right to put marks on your property, regardless of their reasons, unless you give them permission. As to destroying a card, that would be ludicrous unless they owned it.

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Posted By: warshawlaw

I recently submitted some autographed cards on-site for the new PSA combo autograph/card grading. The grader (I guess) immediately recognized the Walter Payton and Ted Kluszewski autographs as authentic. The first thing they did was to pull out a marker and make a streak on the back of each card. I about cried until they explained that the marker is the DNA that becomes colorless when it dries.

It's a pretty good service for cheap authentication of autographs on autographed cards, BTW.

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Posted By: runscott

"Whoops! Who's the wise guy who put that Sharpie there? Sorry Mr Warshaw"

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Posted By: Julie

Apparently when you're as deeply involved with PSA as Levi Bleam, when you dis=encapsulate one of your cards due to discovery of alteration, you have to ask PSA whether they want to buy it from you and destroy it, or whether you can keep it and sell it, and under what conditions. PSA's respose was "a tiny x in the corner."

Yes, I too, didn't think my busy brain was so busy that I couldn't keep all the variations of important cards in it--or at least have a book at my elbow that spelled them all out...my first reaction to levi's telling me that "PSA missed that one," was to think, heck, I wouldn't have, after once hearing about it...

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Posted By: Julie

(That's Levi's usage--it's an obsolete word meaning "to repair, to renew.") The front is gorgeous. The "x" on the back is only 1/8 inch square, way over in the corner, but the pen strokes are pretty thick--as if the marker thought all future prospective graders would be morons, or something.

Levi says the circumstances are "too confusing" for most people to understand, and he'd rather I'd not write it up for VCBC. So, O.K.

Hope to be sending it around tonight, as Bob's bringing home a Epson scanner! Can';t post, but can e-mail...