a very, very happy ending

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Posted By: Julie

I think if they'd destroyed the card, i would have been horrified, because, let's face it, how many people even know about the differences in the double prints? Did they catch it the first time around? No, I did. They must realize that there are many, many encapsulated ebony Jackies who have had their commas removed, either for aesthetic reasons, or for aesthetic reasons. Now I haven't seen the back of my card yet (since Levi got it back from the all-powerful PSA), but if the "x" is anything more than a tiny mere mark, really far in the corner, I will make a fuss.

I think PSA is just trying to make the best of an impossible job: seeing that altered cards are not encapsulated and graded. I'm not sure that my old Jackie (vg-ex), which I sold for a song to Ben, had a comma, and it was from that card that i learned to expect the ebony skin (and a few descriptions of Jackie as--BLACK. My guess--I never saw him in person, though i saw his movie, is that he wasn't blue-black, like Manute Bol, but a true black. Roger Kahn has a good description of first impressions of Jackie in The Boys of Summer, in which his backness figures promenently). I've asked Ben several times (since i found out about the double prints), whether his new Jackie (my old Jackie) has a comma, and I think he may be afraid to tell me it doesn't. Levi showed me a row of 20 corners with the black comma--I'm sure he's correct about the comma being a necessary part of variation 2--but how many t206s do you own, just barely touched here or there with a pen or ballpoint, which left a little mark and lowered the appeal of the card? I'm sure many people thought the comma was a post=printing accident, and sought to correct it--hopelesssly, of course, since, if you hold the card a certain way, you can see the difference in texture where the black has been removed. To further confuse the issue, if the card is centered far enough to the bottom, the comma will be bypassed...it is confined to the lower border, no matter how much space that border occupies)...

I don't know, but i have a feeling that levi did some special pleading on my behalf--to keep the card from being destroyed, swearing I would never encapsulate it, or sell it to someone who would. I should like, someday, to submit it to Mastro with the whole story. I think it's a gas, and would fetch a good price, too! ($650! What a deal...)