July 1996 - VCBC #7, True and Open Card Restoration - An Idea Whose Time Has Come?

[Exhibitman]

I think we have to stop lumping all activity into the same category. Cleaning and stabilizing a card with museum-caliber conservation techniques is not the same as trimming and rebuilding and recoloring. The former is acceptable across the board for art and other paper collectibles like posters and comics. This hobby the exception, and I think that attitude is a manufactured one built on the false foundation of PSA's marketing, which does lump together everything from wiping off a wax stain with a nylon rag to trimming, recoloring and rebuilding as "alterations" in order to sell collectors their service. This hostility to touching a card for any reason is a synthetic development, it is a PSA-perpetuated attitude. It is a manipulated position, an example of good propaganda.

I miss VCBC...