Looking for SGC Authentic assistance

[tmoore_25]

I visit this site infrequently but know that this is where the majority of vintage knowledge resides. I admit that I am not very knowledgeable about the world of vintage. With that being said, I have always loved Allen & Ginter cards and have put the mini sets together from 2006-2018. I have dabbled in some of the original cards and have put together about half of the 1888 World's Smokers set. My concern is that obviously I am missing something when looking at them and clearly am out of my league with reference to alterations.

I submitted 18 of these cards to SGC for grading assuming that most all of them would get poor grades in the range of 1-4. After seeing the grades pop when they shipped today I found that 10 out of 18 were graded as AUTHENTIC.

My question is could anyone enlighten me on why they were graded this way? I know some of them have writing/ink/pen marks on the back. Does that automatically make a card ungradable? Some have stains on them. Does that make them ungradable? I'm just looking for some knowledge on the subject so that I know what to look for when I continue purchasing the remaining cards and trying to replace those that did not get a numerical grade.

[scoobysnacksforyou]

Staining certainly doesn’t make them ungradable. My guess is that they didn’t meet size specs, or showed evidence of being trimmed.

[jbsports33]

Thank you for coming on the board, I agree – most of the time size specs are the reason these older cards do not pass. If they had been a recent trim, they most likely would not have been graded at all. In many cases these older cards, especially N cards or T cards had been cut to size to fit in scrap books or holders that we do not see today. Also, factory cuts had been so different back then, that sizes can sometimes be all over – unfortunately with grading today if a card is short then “A” is common. Sometimes even over-sized cards can get an authentic, not often – if the grader feels that the card was cut differently in any way the card does not get a numerical grade or many cases not graded at all.

This happens a lot with non-sports cards like the “Smokers” set – it’s the luck of the draw sometimes!

Good luck collecting!

[jcmtiger]

I knew these would get authentic because they are rare. Only found copies in a baseball collectible book. Called the author he had 3-4 in the book. DELETE PHOTOS UPSIDE DOWN. NOT SURE WHY

[x2drich2000]

Welcome to the board. I don't think you will get an A just from the pen marks on the back. There are a few reasons you could get one as others have said; trimmed, minimum size, etc. One thing I would look really close at is also color being added. If you look at the Englishman for example, the top right corner of the background is not square and if you zoom in, it is a different shade of blue. This could possible be a recolored area which will always get an A. Same thing in the English Naval Officer's hat. It is very white just above his eye and ear. The lines/folds from the top should carry down below the green to the bottom half as well. On the Prussian Officer there are pen marks over two spots of paperloss (top right of background and neck area). If SGC thought those marks were there to hide the paper loss (which I would) they could call it an A as well. It you compare you cards to others online you will see where the colors don't exactly match up.

DJ