Miscut or Trimmed Mantle?

Bwfogarty

Good afternoon all,
I have recently begun collecting vintage baseball cards. I purchased a 1968 Topps Mickey Mantle that looks beautiful and passed all of the fake tests that I know.
However, one of my friends believes someone trimmed it. Another friend though believes it is a factory miscut. My main concern is that it does not look wide enough.
Your thoughts?
I am deciding between sending it in for grading or taking it back to the seller.
-Brian

P.S. the Ryan Rookie looks good bit has two decent creases. So no gold mine there

JewVol

A factory miscut would not make the card smaller. That card has most likely been trimmed.

JoeBanzai

Can't tell with this scan.

Bwfogarty

Thank you both. What type of picture would help best identify trimming? Taking it out of the screw down and taking a more detailed picture of the edges?

dennis07

Buy a cheap '68 common that you are confident has not been trimmed and over lay it on the '68 Mantle. You can also take good scans of the common and the Mantle. After that enlarge the scans and count the pixels in each border.

Bwfogarty

Thanks Dennis07,
I did that with the pictured Nolan Ryan and the Mantle is definitely not as wide. Ever so slightly.
To clarify, is it possible that a miscut could cause a card to be slightly less wide?

dmanrico

@Bwfogarty said:
Thanks Dennis07,
I did that with the pictured Nolan Ryan and the Mantle is definitely not as wide. Ever so slightly.
To clarify, is it possible that a miscut could cause a card to be slightly less wide?

I’m not aware of any 68s being cut short from the factory.

perkdog

Also a red flag for me is a card being in a screw down, I’ve sent cards in that won’t get a grade due to it being considered “Altered stock” after pulling it out of a screw down holder. I know this doesn’t help with your situation just throwing it out there.

LarkinCollector

@perkdog said:
Also a red flag for me is a card being in a screw down, I’ve sent cards in that won’t get a grade due to it being considered “Altered stock” after pulling it out of a screw down holder. I know this doesn’t help with your situation just throwing it out there.

These are the recessed screwdowns, so shouldn't be an issue with them. The thick lucite with no recess for the card are the ones that cause the smashed stock problem.

Kkathyl

Looks like some room in the holder so might be a trim.

Bwfogarty

Took it to a local card shop and worker there instantly said trimmed.
Buyer was very cool, though, and refunded me