Article on card restoration

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Posted By: Gary B.

Did I take crazy pills, or are these cards, regardless of how artfully they've been restored, just a sham?

If I buy a card that's a PSA-8, I want to buy it because someone had the good sense to take care of that card for decades to keep it in that kind of condition, not because someone spent 50 hours fixing a card that would have only graded a PSA 4 or 5 previously.

I don't understand this guy's justifications at all. Restoring an automobile is one thing, as people traditionally get faulty parts replaced, touch up paint jobs, replace tires, etc. - it's just part of how those particular things work, but I thought almost everyone would want to have a baseball card in it's original state, and that restoration actually detracted significantly from the value.

Now, if a collector decides to have their cards professionaly restored for their own esthetics without the intention of ever selling the cards, or only with full disclosure of work done, that's one thing, but to actually advertise that restoring cards will assist in getting a higher grade from a grading company, actually encouraging people to have their cards altered so they can make more money off of them - if that's not illegal, shouldn't it be?

He said in this article that he had restored thousands of cards, and this was 8 years ago. It's truly frightening to imagine how many cards are out there right now that have been restored by this one person alone, much less by all the people performing these "services."

This makes me want to re-double my efforts now in buying cards only from the very best legitimate dealers, especially when I graduate to buying more higher-end cards. This is almost worse than scammers on ebay selling fake cards. Or am I just totally wacko?