Card Doctor haters please respond

[chipperhank44]

Originally Posted by ksabet

I agree with this but the part where I am confused is why?

If you have two identical cards and both are slabbed PSA 8 why would it matter if one was "touched up" and the other one wasnt?

We love "eye appeal" but then if someone removes a gum stain from 1963 Topps Berra "eye appeal" is thrown out the window and the card is demonized.


If TPGs are defining our love or hate for cards that are doctored then should we flip our stance to buy the holder not the card?

Regarding high grade vintage cards, the "why" is simple economics: Supply affects the market.

If I have a PSA 8 card that is unaltered and top pop, then a guy trim and bleaches a card that gets a PSA 9, the restoration directly affected my resale value. Owners of high grade vintage cards have a vested interest in preventing artificially enhanced cards from equaling or eclipsing unrestored examples.

[steve B]

Restoration is frowned on for stamps too. It happens on occasion if something is rare enough and in truly horrible condition. But the certs take a while to get, and they nearly always catch and mention repairs. One of the companies had a display at the 2006 international show in DC that was entirely repaired and faked items. I couldn't spot the work done on probably 85% of the stuff shown.

I think that fields where restoration is allowed it has a lot to do with preservation and display. I have some old newspapers that are pretty much disintegrating. If they had any real value either historically or as displays I'd have them deacidified and stabilized. If that work is done right it helps the item survive and is reversible.

Art, cars, furniture, movie posters, all have a good deal of practical/display value. And restoration makes them useful for that for a good long time.

Cards as much as we display them aren't usually in the same sort of category as larger art. So the focus is on originality.