Would it be "trimming" to cut the excess off a hand cut card?
 

[url]https://www.ebay.com/itm/183745560550[/url]

These 1952 Wheaties cards have excess box material around the cut. Would it be graded as authentic altered if you cut the excess off and made the cards more presentable, or is it ok?

I feel the term "trimming" cannot be applied to any card that was only available via hand cut. Minimum size sure, but not "trimming".

These would get Authentic grades from PSA since none have the full borders around them. But in general it's just fine to clean up cards that were only hand cut (didn't come from the factory already cut).

Here is a properly cut card:
[IMG]https://img.comc.com/i/Baseball/1963/Post---Base/142/Bill-Virdon.jpg?id=ed31e8c0-7e72-42aa-b55f-102c4fa163dd&size=zoom[/IMG]

This could use a clean up cut along the top and right side:
[IMG]https://img.comc.com/i/Baseball/1963/Post---Base/120/John-Roseboro.jpg?id=a3430d0a-a2da-40ea-92f7-488b042e6bfa&size=zoom[/IMG]