1967 Laughlin Mickey Mantle PSA Trim Jobbery

[JollyElm]

YOW-ZA!!!

Saw this card on eBay and immediately thought, "What in high heck is going on here???"

This is undoubtedly a trimmed card that got through PSA and received an 8.

(Shameless plug alert) I recently did a video for my YouTube Channel about the 1967 Laughlin Mantle 'with address' cards, and consider myself quite an expert, so believe me when I tell you this sucker has absolutely been trimmed down.


Watch this animated gif a couple of times by focusing on each of the four sides/corners in turn and you will see how substantially mini-sized the one card is as a whole lotta white vanishes...




The card is the later (not career contemporary) 'without address' version, so it is much easier to find than the rare 'with address' versions, but they still sell for a decent amount of coin in high grades.

Another thing that is a telltale sign of the alteration is the fact that it seems to be housed in a more-regularly-sized PSA slab, which is in contrast to the obligatory huge slab the other one is in. I remarked about that fact in the aforementioned video, how they swim inside of PSA slabs. These cards are a bit oversized, so they in no way would fit in a 'regular' slab without a paper cutter being involved. (Guess I should add here that it is possible that PSA created a special new slab to hold these guys, but I doubt it. Could be wrong though.)


For posterity, here are the two cards NOT fading in and out:

1967laughlinmantletrimjobcompboth.jpg


I sent the eBay seller a friendly message telling him that it's been trimmed, but said there's no reason to reply. Lord knows I don't want to get in an argument with him if he takes exception.

Oh well.

[JollyElm]

I'm saddened that no one seems to care about this. In the words of Cartman, "Screw you guys, I'm (taking my animated gif work and) going home!!"


They replied to my message, but haven't a clue what it is they are asking me to do:

"New message from: psa
Hi, please submit a CRC Brand Protection Request in order for us to verify this claim here: https://www.psacard.com/myaccount/customerrequestcenter
Thank you!"

It is completely, utterly obvious that the card has been trimmed, but they want me to prove it?? My gawd.

[swarmee]

I don't think you can submit a customer complaint if you don't own the card. You're better of waiting until it sells and then writing a report on the APR website about the item being miscategorized (not altered).

[JollyElm]

Originally Posted by swarmee

I don't think you can submit a customer complaint if you don't own the card. You're better of waiting until it sells and then writing a report on the APR website about the item being miscategorized (not altered).

Wait, do you mean me?
I'm not looking to submit a customer complaint. All I'm doing is telling an eBay seller that they are obviously auctioning an altered card...so maybe they would do the right thing and inform bidders or let PSA know there's a problem.

I told them I'm not clicking on a link to go down some internet rabbit hole and told them they can overlay their card on any other 1967 Laughlin Mantle card to eliminate all doubt. The card has been hugely trimmed.

[swarmee]

I take this kind of thing up with PSA to try to get them to recall the card; they made the mistake, so they should remedy it. So that's why I thought that was your next tactic.

Or you could reach out to eBay member in the thread below (psacrc) who may be able to confirm the card is trimmed and get it recalled from the seller you're dealing with.
https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?t=1507327

[savedfrommyspokes]

Darren, while I don't (or at least have not started yet) collect the 67 Laughlin WS cards, I have completed the 1970 and 1971 sets. I remember going through many copies of each card in order to find copies that were as close to "regular" size as possible. It was always my presumption that these cards were poorly cut when produced.

Could this be the same with the 1967s and that is why PSA has what would appear to be extreme tolerance for card size when grading?

[JollyElm]

Originally Posted by savedfrommyspokes

Darren, while I don't (or at least have not started yet) collect the 67 Laughlin WS cards, I have completed the 1970 and 1971 sets. I remember going through many copies of each card in order to find copies that were as close to "regular" size as possible. It was always my presumption that these cards were poorly cut when produced.

Could this be the same with the 1967s and that is why PSA has what would appear to be extreme tolerance for card size when grading?

It seems impossible that this was a natural variation in size due to the cutting process.
I mean, it is extremely chopped down on three of the four sides. I have never seen one even close to being that much 'off,' and have never seen one small enough (save for the trimmed down PSA Auth Alt 'with address' one I show in my video) to fit in a regular sized slab.

Speculation: best guess is some kid chopped it down to make it be the same size as all of his Topps cards.