If at first you don't succeed... (SGC gets one wrong)

Disclaimer: I am not accusing the seller of this card of any wrongdoing. I have dealt with them before and found them to be quality dealers on all fronts.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

While doing a search of various Hall of Famers on ebay today, I came across the following card on Ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/1916-D303-Mothers-Bread-Eddie-Plank-HOF-SGC-30-2_W0QQitemZ200331600911QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_SM_Sports_Cards?hash=item2ea4b1a40f&_trksid=p3286.m20.l1116

At first glance, I thought that it was just a nice card from a very scarce set. I looked a little closer though, because I used to own a copy of this card as well.

When I opened the picture on the full page, I was shocked to discover this was the very same card I once owned - what shocked me even more, however, was that the card had been given a numerical grade. It is badly trimmed, and all three grading companies have told me so.

I bought this card in the mid 90's from the notorious Alan Hager. I was pretty new to vintage collecting, and I trusted anyone with a nice inventory of cards, which he certainly had. As I began to learn more about cards, and the world of alterations, I realized that I probably had a trimmed card on my hand. If you look at the top and bottom of the card, you will clearly see the trimming.

I decided to try and submit the card for grading, just to be sure (I had a fair amount of cash in the card, and I was hoping I was wrong). All three grading companies sent it back as trimmed (this was before trimmed cards were slabbed), and I decided to sell it. The last time I saw the card was today, in the SGC 30 holder.

--I am also certain this is my card. the chipping on the back left is the same my card had, and more importantly, so is the slight wrinkle on the bottom right corner. I am very familiar with this wrinkle because I am the one who put it there, trying to put the card into a top loader.

This is not meant as a bash on SGC - I think they are the best around, but everyone gets one wrong from time to time!

Always interesting to see a card you once and especially annoying in your situation

Jay

Very frustrating - I am just hoping to alert any potential buyer that this is not an SGC 30 card (at least it didn't used to be)...

all part of the grading game...and it sucks!

i was also shocked the first time when a sgc30 i sold turned out to be a psa6....yea i was naive...nothing surprises me anymore in this hobby.

Yikes, I remember that card well when it was in your collection, Chris. No doubt it's trimmed on the bottom edge. Have you notified SGC about this? I'm thinking they'd probably make things right if they were notified of the situation.

SGC will be contacting the owner of the card and looking into it. Both the owner and SGC are great to work with, so I am sure the issue will be handled correctly.

how do you determine value on that card? sgc/JVSP will be going back vcp or something to determine a buyout? or if SGC finds that it's trimmed slab it back in an AUT holder and pay joe's the difference? i don't think joe would just agree to hand over his SGC30 d303 plank and say yea i'd take an AUT back.

Interesting. It is a beautiful card and appears to be full sized. If it is trimmed, SGC should buy it back from the seller. As you state, the seller is an honest standup guy. I wonder how this will end.

Personally, if you had not said that 3 companies rejected it as trimmed, I would say that the card looks good. Even after knowing what you stated, I still think the card is ok.

i agree with rman's sentiment, card looks full-sized and cut appear normal.

Well SGC got it wrong once - the question is when; when they gave it back to me as trimmed or when they put a numerical grade on it?

Having owned the card for years and looking at it closely dozens of times (and being told by three different grading companies that it was trimmed) - I still say it is trimmed. I guess it is possible that all three companies could have erred the first time around, but it seems unlikely IMO.

If SGC re-examines it and says its good - that's fine by me; I will just chalk it up to some bad luck on my side the times I submitted it. The card is out of my collection regardless, so I don't stand to profit in any way from the outcome of this; I just wanted people to know that it had been deemed trimmed in the past...

Chris,

When did you last own the card? and who did you sell it to?

Richard,

The card was sold as part of a deal I made with a private collector in April of 2004. I don't believe the individual who I sold it to is a member of this board, so I would rather not reveal his name at this time.

Chris,

5 years is a long time ago.

Are you sure that it is the same card? I managed to find this card in a 2007 Mastro auction:

http://www.legendaryauctions.com/LotDetail.aspx?lotid=79034

so it has been in an SGC holder for some time.

Grading 5 years ago was also not the same as it is today, with all due respect to any PSA or SGC card graders out there who may be reading this. The knowledge of obscure issues, the way they were cut, etc. back in 2004 is much much less than today.

Also, for what it's worth, the Plank D303 Mothers is probably the most common Mothers along with Bender and Marquard. There are not hundreds of them floating around out there, but there are a handful. D303's, for some reason, also have very consistent cuts and centering in my experience. Those that I have seen all seem to be in the 3-5 grade range.

I said it before, the card does not look trimmed to me. Do you think you might be mistaken that it was your card from 5 years ago?