Alteration vs. Conservation Defined

[glchen]

OK, I ended up watching the first ten minutes of that video. I see what Brent is trying to say, but I also see the significant problems with it. I don't collect art or comics, but I do dabble in a tiny bit of coin collecting. (I have one coin in my PCGS set registry.) In coins, people clean all of the time. In fact, you can pay your TPG a little more to do the cleaning for you. They add some chemicals, I think, and that removes some of the grime, etc from the coin. The coins still receive a number grade. This practice is mostly accepted by the coin community as far as I know, and people even like it after cleaning if their coins "shine" in a certain way that has some sort of nice color pattern.

So if you apply that practice to card collecting, that is basically saying that soaking with water is okay, and soaking with chemicals is somewhat okay if it is done right. This probably sounds reasonable to a generic collector although more experienced collectors will realize the problems with this.

The bigger problem is what T206Collector states with post 42. That is, the public finds evidence that a card suddenly got a much higher grade after some "conservation." PWCC seems to be basically saying they are not going to withdraw that card from the market, and send it back to the TPG. They are going to say that is now a legit card with the higher grade because the changes weren't caught by the TPG. I have problems with that. That doesn't sound right. I think that most of the times when cards go up in grade is due to "corner sharpening," and I can't see how that is "conservation" although Brent mentions spooning. Here are some ways to improve a card's grade:


(1) Water soaking to remove the card from being glued to a scrapbook.

I think this is acceptable as conservation, and many people do this, and is generally accepted. Saying that I have heard of some paper stocks that will explode if removed from a holder after being soaked. That is, someone soaks the card. It gets encapsulated with a nice grade. Someone tries to remove the card from its plastic prison. Card explodes upon removal. I guess soaking wasn't conservation there.

(2) Removing pencil marks from cards

I was against this at first, but it looks like there is gradual movement in the hobby to allow this. What really bothered me was one case where a collector went to a TPG, and right in front of the TPG, they erased the offending pencil mark, and the TPG then went ahead and put the card in a holder with a higher grade. That just seemed wrong to me. That said, I'm coming around on thinking this is okay as long as the pencil mark didn't indent the card, and somehow this indenting wasn't removed also. Is that really conservation also?

(3) Removing pen marks. Removing pen marks typically requires chemicals, and water soaking or erasure won't do it. Using chemicals on cards is typically a big no no in this hobby although it is allowed in other hobbies like coins if done right. Using chemicals on cards still bugs me. I think one part of it is the fear that although the chemicals may not damage the card in the short term, it may still be present in the paper stock, and damage the card over the longer term. That is, someone puts a chemical on a card, and it looks great! It gets holdered with a nice high grade. However, then over time, the card starts looking worse and worse in the holder because the chemicals are "eating away" at the card or something similar like discoloring it.


(4) Corner sharpening. I just don't see how this can't be alteration. OK, fine you flip a corner over. The card goes from 2 to a 3 for the grade. I can live with that, and say it's not altered. However, many of the examples we see, the card goes to 7 or higher in grade. That's just not possible. It seems to me what's happening is flipping the corner over, then soaking and pressing. However, it seems to me, what happens is that unless paper stock was added (or the card was trimmed), that sharp corner is going to get unsharp in the future as the pressing wears out, and the corner comes apart.

(5) Trimming. I'm assuming everyone agrees that trimming is alteration and not conservation. Saying that, it's generally allowed and accepted in hand cut cards or strip cards, where the card can still receive a number grade after this trimming.


Anyway, I'm sure I'm missing some scenarios but just my initial thoughts on this topic.