Questions for Doug Allen

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Posted By: Bottom of the Ninth

I would like to commend Doug on his decision to come here and post. I know that he is saying some things that many who read this board find unpalatable, at a minimum. And at this point, it should not come as a surprise to anyone here that most dealers not only endorse what Doug has described above as methods of maximizing grades, but also practice the procedures whenever possible.

These processes are not just restricted to 7’s, 8’s and 9’s, by the way—far from it. 5% of the dealers/sellers will admit to it and the other virtually 90% will lie about it. Face it, if you are buying cards from a source other than the original owner, you are buying cards which have likely undergone some form of prep before being submitted for grading and sold to the public. That which Doug has described is actually fairly mild from what I know to be performed on cards to improve their appearance.

The PSA Guidelines for the Altered Stock (posted by Peter Spaeth) is the same wording that appeared in the SMR over 10 years ago. Much has changed in the processes used and the results there of, with removing creases and wrinkles. When graders can DETECT (a very important qualification) a crease was attempted to be removed, the card will be rejected, hence the crease will not have been removed or it will have been removed leaving some type of collateral damage. If done properly, it is going to get past the graders. And in almost all cases, even if done improperly, the odds of a crease coming back are slim to none.

The process of grading a card is normally very brief. No grader is going to reject a card for something they can no longer see even if they are specifically told (not realistic) that a crease was removed. If the crease is truly removed, by virtue of the process, you have left no evidence and the card is going to grade as it appears. Unless you are sending in a card that is worth thousands of dollars and assuming the graders know the value of the card they are grading, how involved can you expect a grader to get with a card they are being paid $10 or $15 to grade?

Greg