Possible trimming?

72skywalker

I was at our local card show on saturday and there was a newer dealer there that had a ton of cards from the early 1980's and 1970's that were in amazing shape. He has a 1981 Topps Dr J and Kareem that was razor sharp and after looking at all of his cards they were all razor sharp and raw. Something in the back of my mind was telling me that they must all be trimmed. How can one person have hundreds of cards that are all perfect at reasonable prices. I didn't buy any of them but am I being critical and pesimestic thinking that he is a trimmer when he just could have really nice stuff? my thinking was that if it too good to be true it probably is. If he had some soft corner cards i woud not think twice but all of them???

Batpig

Only way to know for sure is to measure. I know people who are fanatically anti grading, including a dealer.

JoeBanzai

@72skywalker said:
I was at our local card show on saturday and there was a newer dealer there that had a ton of cards from the early 1980's and 1970's that were in amazing shape. He has a 1981 Topps Dr J and Kareem that was razor sharp and after looking at all of his cards they were all razor sharp and raw. Something in the back of my mind was telling me that they must all be trimmed. How can one person have hundreds of cards that are all perfect at reasonable prices. I didn't buy any of them but am I being critical and pesimestic thinking that he is a trimmer when he just could have really nice stuff? my thinking was that if it too good to be true it probably is. If he had some soft corner cards i woud not think twice but all of them???

There is/was a local dealer in St Paul Minnesota who used to have lots of 1960's raw, perfect looking cards.

His cards were all just fine.

If you are suspicious, simply measure it next to a card you have that you know hasn't been trimmed.

72skywalker

I was thinking of that but did not want to insult him by measuring next to him.

Batpig

It’s not an insult, and anyone who reacts as if it is would be shady in my book. It’s a common thing for people to carry around samples to measure against.

PNWcollector

@72skywalker said:
I was thinking of that but did not want to insult him by measuring next to him.

I would not be worried about what a seller thinks of you measuring the cards. That is you doing your due diligence. And if the cards are legit and unaltered, the seller shouldn't have a problem with it. Would you buy a car without taking it on a test drive?

JoeBanzai

@72skywalker said:
I was thinking of that but did not want to insult him by measuring next to him.

It would only insult him if the cards were trimmed.

If you wanted to be nice about it, you could have said "Wow those are beautiful, would you mind if I quickly checked them a little closer?".

If he refused, cards are probably trimmed, if they are good, he would welcome the examination.

Cakes

While it might be uncomfortable you have to measure. I got burned on a Doctor J. rookie 15 years ago and it still burns me up!

I still pull out the card centering tool that a member here invented.