Should cards be cleaned or left alone

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Posted By: 1Jeff

Hello,
I am new to this board and would like to thank Ben for introducing me to it.It has been nice to read the posts and pick up information and I would like to thank everyone for that.I have been collecting cards in one way or another for most of my life.I started collecting only vintage baseball cards over a year and a half ago.It had been a rough ride in the begining trying to teach myself the ropes.I had bought some reprint Cracker Jack cards and after buying some from another seller realized I had a problem with one of them because they were different.After that I began to wonder about all of the cards I had bought.So I sent them all to be graded,anyway this brings me to my question.One of my first purchases was a really nice T-206 Christy Mathewson with the dark cap,which I thought was one of my higher grade cards.The only problem this card has is a tiny G lightly written on the white border in the bottom left corner(of course the seller never said this in his auction listing and I didnt know better).My question is should pencil marks be left alone or can can they be removed without damaging the card.I dont want to sell this card because it is very nice but I would like to know for the future.Thank you for any help.
Jeff