Soaking a card?

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Posted By: T206Collector

...that turns on the disclosure element.

I think I've beaten this point into the ground, but why disclose something that isn't there -- is and will always be undetectable. The reason people want a disclosure, in my opinion, is not so they can decide if a card has been changed, but if it has been undetectably changed.

More to the point, if the card has been graded by PSA, SGC or GAI, then I really do not think any disclosure is needed. That's the beauty of 3d party grading. I would rather have SGC's final word on a card than yours. Why? For a number of reasons, including, I suppose primarily, the liquidity of the card is not dependent on your opinion.

Finally, I think Wonkaticket is right that there is a parallel or crossover here between high grade lovers and the SGC 40-60 and below crowd. I do not buy high grade T206 cards -- i.e., higher than SGC 80 -- because of a presumption of alteration I bestow on those cards. But when I say alteration, let me be clear -- I'm not talking about soaking and removing paper/glue, which I am sure is why some cards are quite high grade (that is, they were kept in albums all those years with sharp corners, white borders and no creases). I am, rather, talking about, almost exclusively, trimming, i.e., the taking away of cardboard from the card after it leaves the factory. This is universally disliked by collectors.

But, perhaps those that want all of their cards to be PSA 7 and higher, may be a little bit more, say, uptight about former/hidden/undetectable flaws in their cardboard. Sort of a virgin fantasy, but applied to baseball cards.