Another "improved" card...1914 CJ Johnson

[JollyElm]

My first thought would be that someone photoshopped the heck out of the picture of the card, but there are problems with that theory. Amongst many other things, the creases kinda squish the shape of his body and especially the face. Look how thin his countenance is in the first slab as compared to how squared it is in the second. With serious graphics skills, you could manipulate the picture to 'correct' it that way, but the amount of time and effort would be crazy (I won't even mention how much work would be involved in keeping the holder looking consistent and real) without any sort of true payoff (because the actual card wouldn't match the doctored picture in any way). I have perhaps another theory, but I am unsure how realistic it is, because I am not an expert on PSA's workings...

Say the person cracked the card out of the original slab (without doing too much damage to said slab) and went to town cleaning it, flattening the creases, etc., and was able to reinsert the card back into the damaged slab. Could he then have sent it back to PSA (not requesting a review or anything) to be simply re-slabbed, and therefore getting the same serial number?? Since the grade is so mediocre to begin with, I doubt the card would've been subjected to too much additional scrutiny, no? Absent anything else, that's really the clearest explanation.