Does this PSA holder look tampered with?

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Posted By: Ben

I purchased this card on eBay a few months ago. The photos attached to the auction description were not great. When I received the card I was surprised to see it housed in a PSA 4 holder. It looks like a 2 or maybe a 3. The left hand side and top have areas that seem more "frosty than usual". Also, the reverse of the PSA label is completely blank with a only a white dot sticker on it. I only paid about 50.00 so no great loss if something fishy has gone on with this card...but why bother for a relatively inexpensive card? Any thoughts are appreciated.
Ben


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Posted By: Dan Kravitz

Holder has a white boarder, which can't be good.

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Posted By: dennis

i have seen lots of 4 s look like this one

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Posted By: Mike Mccullough

My guess would be yes... My bet would be someone busted the 4 out of the holder and then exchanged the flip into the 2 holder... I ask the same question,,,, why???

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Posted By: Kevin Saucier

"The left hand side and top have areas that seem more "frosty than usual". Also, the reverse of the PSA label is completely blank with a only a white dot sticker on it. I only paid about 50.00 so no great loss if something fishy has gone on with this card...but why bother for a relatively inexpensive card?"


Ouch on that frosting. Ouch on the blank back PSA label. That's a classic looking top half-crack for slipping out the flip and card on a PSA or SGC holder. I have frosted examples of both if needed for comparison. Clean slabs have been shown before and won't help in this case.

Why bother? That's a good question. Maybe it's practice for something larger? Maybe the seller just wanted to see if it could be done?


Kevin

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Posted By: JimB

Maybe it should have been a 3, but if there are no creases it is not grossly overgraded. I doubt it has been tampered with.
JimB

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Posted By: Kevin Saucier

Here is a SGC top-half crack example...before being cleaned-up. The bottom half is still factory sealed. It is scanned against a black background so the frosting shows better (although the top border still looks good).

This is not an isolated slab, I've cracked several and "every one" was successfully half-cracked at each slip-out point...top, bottom, right and left sides. This is their new design that is tamper resistant with a 100% weld.

IMO they should have also used better security measures in their flip design to make it more difficult to duplicate. I think we can expect to see a lot more slab and/or flip altering in the future until these companies make better improvements.





Hope this helps.

Kevin

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Posted By: Ben

I appreciate everyone's help and input on this card. Consensus seems to be that it was cracked out. For 50.00 I am still happy with the card and it is good enough to represent Lazzeri in my HOF collection.

Here is the auction...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160191305231

He has 100% feedback and has sold other vintage cards. All of his photos are far away however. Has anyone else here had experience with this seller? Perhaps he was not the culprit.

Ben

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Posted By: PC

Ben -- can you post a scan of the reverse? Would be interested to see what the back of the flip looks like.

Kevin -- scary stuff. What was supposed to be tamper resistant about the new SGC holder? Is it that the borders will clearly show the frosting? Also, can you show what the holder looks like after it has been cleaned-up/de-frosted? (Apologies if you've posted that elesewhere -- I seem to recall a discussion about it before.)

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Posted By: Ben

Here is a scan of the reverse. If I had seen the reverse I wouldn't have bought the card but for less than 50.00 I didn't even bother asking for one. I remember thinking that was a poor photo he had of the card but when I saw that all the other cards he was selling also had poor photos I didn't think much of it.

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Posted By: bigfish

to see that someone would do this. Lazzeri??? Guess you really have to look at every card and holder before you buy it.