card doctors

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Posted By: Kevin

Why test PRO when we know they will slab just about anything? The real test is an authentication company with trained professionals that claim they are able to catch most altered cards. A website is not needed to show this, it can be done here.

I won't go into the graphic details but this was a test taken to the “extreme.” Done to see just how much a card could be "put through the wringer" and still get past trained eyes.

This was a T206 Rube Marquard card purchased with a huge glob of almost unremovable glue on the back, stained, dirty and dinged. In this condition it was virtually ungradeable and I doubt it would have even been slabbed "authentic" based on the relatively low value and poor condition.

In all, this card went through over 30 steps, again to test the limits. This goes far beyond doctoring.

It was placed in several different chemicals, bleached and rebleached about 4 times - each time using a different solution, toned and retoned a few times, dings removed, plus soaked dried at least a dozen times. The entire process took a couple weeks.

Here is the card in the middle of the process. Note the glue has been removed (not by water) and it is shown in one of the “many” bleached-out stages.



Here is how the card looked once completed. Submitted as you see it and without being deodorized. It resides in a PSA 2 holder. In the future it will be cracked and taken out of circulation.





Now if a card could be doctored in such a way that many would (and may still) consider it unimaginable and still get a grade, how many are passed with just subtle alterations by skilled card doctors? From my experience about 10% - 15% are questionable. As for how many are trimmed…an educated guess is 10%.

A better question would be what are these various companies doing to keep up with advancements in alterations and who trains them? If they are just solely relying on OJT then many more doctored cards may be slipping by then they think.