T206 Lionel Carter vs. Harris Collection

[Exhibitman]

I've been collecting T206 since the 1970s and I never saw purportedly high grade cards in the numbers that have been seen since the Copeland/Harris sales. I've even been in on finds of original accumulations of T cards and they simply do not remain in near pristine condition with normal handling--vg/ex to ex/mt is about the range for the nicest ones but with nice fat borders. My belief is that there are a hell of a lot of hacked T206 'high grade' cards out there. And SGC gets caught sometimes too. I owned an SGC 80 Waddell portrait. Beautiful card except for the trimming. I showed it to Dave Foreman at the National and he acknowledged it was bad and offered to buy it back on the spot to get it out of circulation. When SGC screws up they say so and they take steps to remedy the problem, which is one reason why many vintage card collectors take their work product over PSA's. PSA never admits error without a fistfight.

But I digress. Carter's cards get more respect for all of the reasons others have outlined above. I also know of several collectors who quietly collect Carter-pedigreed cards, which probably helps drive prices too.