Oh good, somebody altered my N172 (w/before and after photos)

[Anthony S.]

A couple days ago I came to the unfortunate realization that the N172 Sowders I was about to put up for sale had been altered. One of the alterations was so well done, and on a relatively low condition Old Judge no less, that I thought I would share both my story and before and after photos of the alterations as a warning to fellow collectors. Just because you buy a low grade slabbed card, doesn't mean somebody hasn't monkeyed with it.

I bought the N172 Sowders in its current SGC 10 holder on Ebay in July of this year (see 2nd photo). In the past few months I've narrowed the focus of exactly what type of N172s I intend to collect, so I'm selling off a few Old Judges that don't meet those parameters.

So I zipped over to Vintage Card Prices to get a sense of how much this card has sold for in the past (and to remind myself how my I paid). My card is inadvertently listed as an SGC A on VCP, but as you can see if you subscribe to the service, I paid $153.50 on July 18th, 2010.

Then I noticed that a N172 Sowders PSA Authentic had sold for $100.99 on March 7th, 2009. I decided to click on the photo link to see how that card compared to mine. That photo is the 1st photo beneath this text.

My first thought was "Hey, mine's in better condition. The PSA Sowders has two spots of paper loss near the top border." Then, I noticed that the vertical crease on the PSA Sowders that starts at the bottom border and makes a beeline for his groin (kind of like Paris Hilton) was identical to the vertical crease on my SGC Sowders. Coincidence, I thought. Then I glanced at the seemingly minor paper loss directly above Sowders' head on my SGC card and realized it was in the exact same location as the more extensive paper loss on the PSA Sowders. At this point I took out a magnifying glass (I make that part sound easy, but in reality I live in such a feral state it took about 45 minutes and several profanities before I found my magnifying glass), and realized that some restoration had been done to the SGC Sowders' paper loss. In actuality, the fireplace poker shape of the paper loss on the PSA Hornung is identical to the shape of the area on the SGC Sowders where the restoration had been performed.

That's when I realized it was the same card. But, here's the part that blows me away. Check out the 2nd area of paper loss on the PSA Sowders, the area directly above his pitching hand. That's pretty substantial. Now look at the same area on the SGC Sowders. Pretty damn hard to tell that anything has been done. Only on the closeup, the 3rd photo, can you barely make out the outline of the area that was restored.

[cfc1909]

and we think its just the high grades-unbelievable-thanks for sharing Anthony.

Now we need SGC to tell us who submitted the card! I know you are reading this-the doctor and SGC. Sooner or later we will find out. I know its against SGC rules to tell but the doctor will keep at it until?

[Peter_Spaeth]

Submitters' identities are sacred in the TPG world. Imagine if one could look them up, what hell would break loose.

[rhettyeakley]

Anthony, either the card doctor is amazing at what he does OR I suspect that second area of "loss" on that first scan may have in fact been extra paper that when moistened came right off as I'm not seeing anything of that shape & size on your "after" scan.

[Anthony S.]

Hey Rhett,

That may well prove to be the case, but the more I've looked at it under magnification, the more I've come to believe that the paper has been transplanted. I agree that the closeup photo doesn't convey that. I just ordered a jewelers loupe and will know better in a few days.

[Bosox Blair]

Black light might be interesting too. Thanks for posting this - fascinating! (Nice detective work using the VCP too.)

Cheers,
Blair

[botn]

According to VCP the ebay seller is foodledotnet. That ID must have undergone an id change as there is no listing for it on ebay. However someone who signed in as Eric on the old board identified himself as foodledotnet on the 5/7/08 post on this thread http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=89599.

And a more recent post on another board links someone by the name of cozmokramer to that ebay id http://www.sportscardfreaks.com/foru...ards-sale.html. If this is the same cozmokramer who posts here maybe he can tell us who he sold the card to.