Buying Authentic Altered Cards

[brian1961]

Bestdy777 makes some compelling points on the merits of Authentic-graded cards.

It just depends if you are figuring on making a good profit down the road. Most collectors won't touch Authentic cards. Then again, some gorgeous cards are more often than not ONLY available as Authentic, such as 1959 Bazooka, 1960 Post Cereal, 1954-54 Briggs Meats, 1954-55 Esskay Franks, 1962 Post Cereal Baseball and Football, and 1962 JELL-O. These are probably not what you had in mind, as they're mostly all very tough regional / food issues.

There's a lot of "bang for the buck" if you ferret out great eye-appealing cards that technically could only be graded an "A".

Just keep in mind, when it comes time to sell, unless the typical attitude towards Authentic cards becomes more mature, where a card is judged for the merits it truly possesses, you had better not be hard-pressed to quickly cash in your cards. There just aren't that many collectors willing to enthusiastically buy Authentic cards. I wish you the best. For what it's worth, I agree with you--some 1s, 2s, 3s, and 4s look lousy compared to a beautiful AUTHENTIC that's mostly all there.

Go for your win-win situation. Sounds as if you've given the matter some thought, though again, if re-sale is imperative, think it through all the harder before you plunk down your dough. --Brian Powell