How long have cards been trimmed?

[Matt]

Originally Posted by Chris Counts

It's hard for me to imagine that trimmed cards existed even in the 1970s since there was hardly anybody I recall from that era that really cared about perfectly sharp corners. Any thoughts? Are trimmed cards a product of the slabbed card era? Or have dealers and collectors always sought to "improve" cards?

Cards were 'trimmed' well before the grade mattered - kids would cut them for any number of reasons - to fit into an album, to have them be the same size as other cards or because they didn't think the borders were of any import.

[FrankWakefield]

113 years, or thereabouts.


Seems to me the first cards to be trimmed were Old Judge cards, where folks wanted to remove the brand name in an attempt to minimize the likelihood that young collectors would turn to smoking cigarettes.

If that 'how long' doesn't suit, how about 102 years. That would be about when collectors of ballcards would trim down American Caramel cards just a bit, so they would be the same size as the white border tobacco cards.

[Leon]

I think cards have been trimmed for at least 140 yrs.....I have seen many of the 1869 Peck and Snyders that are trimmed, for one reason or another. Back in the very early days of collecting they didn't really care....It was fun and the money wasn't too much of the equation....

[Peter_Spaeth]

Perhaps what the question is getting at is how long have cards been trimmed with deceptive intent.

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Perhaps what the question is getting at is how long have cards been trimmed with deceptive intent.

I witnessed card doctoring - with Deceptive Intent - as early as 1978-79, which is about the same time I resumed collecting after doing so as a young 'un from 1968-1972.

When I started attending card shows in the early 1980s, I always brought along one of those old clear card measurers, as trimming was already a common concern.

I knew a Pennsylvania card shop owner in the mid-1980s who hired a local kid to sit in the shop's back room and color touch the edges and corners of the owner's 1971 and 1975 Topps baseball cards. I confronted the owner about it, but he didn't think it was any big deal - he was just makin' 'em look nicer.

[HRBAKER]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Perhaps what the question is getting at is how long have cards been trimmed with deceptive intent.

For as long as any type of money has been invloved.

[fkw]

102 Years or so...

E90-1s and other slightly larger E cards were often trimmed to be the same size as T206, T205 etc.

in the 1970s when the first plastic pages came out many oldschool collectors trimmed cards so they would fit some pages.

As a kid I once got a whole shoebox collection of 1952-69 Topps cards with all of the 1952-56 Topps (about 200 cards) cut down to 2.5" by 3.5". This was in 1978.

There are different types of trimming...

[Rickyy]

Well I know it goes back at least to the 70's...when I was a kid I used to trim them especially the 71 Topps because I hated the chipped corners. Also I used to try to flatten out the corner dings and creases on my 72 - 74 cards too..it was keeping them in those darn shoe boxes! There was no intention to deceive...Just wanted my collection to look nicer...I didn't imagine they would be slabbed, graded and scrutinzed to the ninth degree and sold for mega bucks by grown ups many years later...

[FrankWakefield]

If the idea is 'how long' with intent to improve value, then what Jeff says about 'as long as any type of money has been involved' would be the answer. And cards started getting a 'bit' of value in about 1960 or so. I'd think before then, when HOF T206's sold for under a dollar, things weren't out of hand. Burdick, Carter, Orem, the old guys... they'd whine about folks paying very much at all for cards. The value of them interfered with their collecting of them. So in the 60's and 70's, when folks started getting more for the cards they sold (careful there, to avoid saying that cards were 'worth' more, cards are just cardboard), THAT would be when trimming, coloring, bleaching, and such began, with a goal of deception to get more money for a sale.

[wonkaticket]

Originally Posted by fkw

in the 1970s when the first plastic pages came out many oldschool collectors trimmed cards so they would fit some pages.

Frank Ward....so sad but so true... so glad this ol' timer got this one to fit those pesky sheets.