Interesting Story Concerning Card Trimming and Grading

[Archive]

Posted By: MW

Eric --

The T208 Set might very well exist. I'm OK with that part of the story. I don't see how it relates to the 1939 DiMaggio, but that's OK, there's a lot of stuff I don't understand.

With respect to the 1939 Play Balls coming straight from packs, I'm a bit skeptical. Can you guess how many times I've heard that? Couldn't this gentleman just as easily have picked one up from a buddy who trimmed them to fit the size of his wooden box he kept them in? And what if a group of 1939 Play Balls had been cut short at the factory? Perhaps he even had some of the factory overprints which are known to vary considerably in size and have some unusual cuts.

I recall a collection we purchased about 15 years ago, where an older gentleman did just that. He constructed a box that fit all of his 1953 Bowmans -- he owned quite a few. Unfortunately, he cut down his 1952 Topps high numbers so that they also fit into the same box. Among the cards he trimmed were NM/MT+ condition copies of Robinson, Mathews, and Mantle. He had no idea they were smaller than regulation size. Did he remember trimming them? Nope. His impression was that they came out of the packs like that.


Best regards,
Michael