Nolan Ryan Rookie - Colored eBay purchase in 2004/What to Do?

[Schlesinj]

Quick background/cautionary tale: In the early 2000s, after my first hiatus of my collecting experience (first break in the mid 90s), I decided I was interested in buying a few cards I always wanted back when I was a teenager. eBay seemed to be a good place to start and I had a few good experiences. I decided to buy a raw Nolan Ryan rookie. I reviewed the pics, asked some questions etc. Of course, this was 15+ years ago, so lots of things changed with protections/knowledge, but I received the card and it looked good to my untrained eye. A year or so later I decided I would give grading a shot, so I submitted to Beckett and to my surprise the card came back colored on the corners. Lesson learned and that experience along with life in general (4 kids in 8 years) pushed me out of eBay and collecting in general.

Fast forward to COVID 2020 and I jumped back in. I decided to pull out my cards and sitting at the top of my pile is that Ryan. It is in a case and I still have the BGS stickered response. My question is what can I do with it besides it being a life lesson? Do other graders slab colored card? Does it even matter or help? I guess in the end I do not plan on selling it, but more curious to what the process is these days.

Thanks for any guidance.

PS: I would put a few pic on the is site, but being new I have no idea how to do that.

[Leon]

I would get it put into an AUT holder and sell it, if that is the goal. And if that isn't the goal then just hang onto it.

[jingram058]

New lingo to me...what are colored corners?

[jchcollins]

Originally Posted by jingram058

New lingo to me...what are colored corners?

I'm assuming he means retouched with a marker or crayon. For '68 Topps, if you had a worn corner it would theoretically be possible to color back in some of the brown burlap design to make it look less obvious. I don't know if it would make the corners look sharper, but it may make wear less noticeable. This is of course alteration, and ruins the technical grade of the card.

[jchcollins]

My first question would be how is the condition of the card otherwise? If it's a beater I probably wouldn't bother getting it slabbed. But if it still has a nice image and surface, even altered cards can be very collectible or at a minimum worth something to somebody. I have a '56 Mantle with similar corner issues in an SGC Authentic slab. I have other cards that are worth more, but this one is sentimental to me because I've had it since I was about 13 years old. Yes, it's altered, but who cares? It's still a great looking card. You will find especially with more valuable vintage cards that there is still indeed quite a market for such things. Some people have to have only nicer cards in respectable, numbered slabs. For others interested more in eye appeal, important cards can sometimes be had on the cheap in A slabs.

[swarmee]

Yep, in order to get the card slabbed AUTHENTIC ALTERED by PSA, you would submit it with the following sentence under the line in the form for this card:
"SLAB AS AUTHENTIC ALTERED IF IT DOES NOT GET A NUMBER GRADE."

[Schlesinj]

Originally Posted by jchcollins

My first question would be how is the condition of the card otherwise? If it's a beater I probably wouldn't bother getting it slabbed. But if it still has a nice image and surface, even altered cards can be very collectible or at a minimum worth something to somebody. I have a '56 Mantle with similar corner issues in an SGC Authentic slab. I have other cards that are worth more, but this one is sentimental to me because I've had it since I was about 13 years old. Yes, it's altered, but who cares? It's still a great looking card. You will find especially with more valuable vintage cards that there is still indeed quite a market for such things. Some people have to have only nicer cards in respectable, numbered slabs. For others interested more in eye appeal, important cards can sometimes be had on the cheap in A slabs.

Thanks all for the responses!

I was able to post a few pics (Post #10). I think it looks decent, no creases a little OC L/R and on back. I think the corners look decent (despite the coloring). I really looked under the light and moved it around and I guess you can see a hint of discoloration when you look at the specific spots where they referenced.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by jingram058

New lingo to me...what are colored corners?

The corners looked bad so someone as an example took a marker and colored them back in.

[JollyElm]

Originally Posted by Schlesinj

PS: I would put a few pic on the is site, but being new I have no idea how to do that.

Do you have scans, pics ready to post? If so, try to get their sizes pretty small (like about 1MB or smaller) so they will readily load up on the site. Then (as you are typing your message) click the 'paper clip' icon on the page as so (highlighted in blue)...

stepone.jpg

Which will bring up this window...

steptwo.jpg

Hit "Choose File" and find the image(s) on your computer that you want to post (the screenshot shows that I had already uploaded the 'stepone' graphic) and then hit "Upload."

When the file uploads, go back to where you were typing the message...

stepthree.jpg

And then hit that paper clip again to choose the file you want to add to your post...

stepfour.jpg

And BOOM!! that's it. There are other ways to upload pics, but this is the most straightforward.

(Technical note for clarity: a couple of minor revisions were made to the text after I took screenshots, so some of it doesn't match exactly.) (Of course, now everyone reading this is trying to find those differences. Ha ha.)