Card Doctors

[Brian-Chidester]

I'm curious, has any major story ever broken about a seller regularly working with card doctors on high-end vinage cards? In other words, has someone been caught and perhaps taken to court and been exiled from the industry?

Does an example of someone so egregious exist? And how does this person express himself/herself today about the sports memorabilia industry?

[barrysloate]

Brian- there are many card doctors who do amazing work, and do it well enough to often fool the graders. They live and work well below the radar. One was profiled in VCBC #7, one in an early issue of The Old Judge, and there are many others too. As far as any of them going to trial I have no idea, I haven't heard anything.

[Matt]

Do a forum search for "Susor."

[Jim VB]

Brian,

Keep in mind that what "card doctors" do, may not be illegal, per se. There are no laws against, trimming, re-coloring, crease removal, etc.

They only break the law when they attempt to defraud someone. Many avoid this by not becoming card sellers. They just perform a service, for a fee, for other people. Unless they are aware that their customer is engaged in a fraud (buying, repairing, and reselling), it's hard to pin any crime on them.


The guy Matt mentioned did both, doctoring and sales, and got in trouble for it.

[drc]

If you're paying someone else to do it, it's legally the same as if you did it yourself.

As Jim noted, it's how the known altered card is described at sale that is the legal issue. You can do, or have done, whatever you want to card, but you have to disclose known alterations at sale.

[Jim VB]

Originally Posted by drc

If you're paying someone else to do it, it's legally the same as if you did it yourself.

What I was trying to say was that, in this case, the fraud is on the card owner, not the doctor.

Thanks for helping clarify that, David.