LeBron Exquisite /99 - altered & damaged

usmc03vet · 03-01-2020, 12:00 PM

In the spirit of transparency, my name is Joe Venegas & I am the owner/operator of Veterans Investment Group based in LA.

Now that I have appropriate identified myself, I will start off with the fact that I don't engage/interact/chime in much on here or anywhere else.

That being said, I feel that in this case regarding the LeBron RPA #25/99 BGS 9.5/10, it would be an absolute injustice not to say something now.

Here are the facts as I understand them:

First and foremost the current owners of this card prior to making the purchase did as much legwork as humanly possible to vet this card, to include contacting certain member's of blowoutforums in good faith asking them to help verify that the card is authentic & in it's original factory state free of any alterations.

According to these members, the card was 100% original and unaltered. Fast forward, card was subsequently purchased & within a matter of weeks this stance taken by these members was walked back and photographs mysteriously surfaced showing (what I would determine as significant corner damage) to the card.

Now, let us examine the "evidence" of trimming proposed by these members. The photograph shown of the card in it's un-graded state points out the bottom left & right corner with notes (the bottom right corner note states, "Debris in scan goes off card") which is alarming in and of itself.

If anyone here is familiar with photo editing or photoshopping, you would know that absolutely ANYTHING & or EVERYTHING can be done to a photograph showing what the editor wants the viewer to see, to include adding lines that would indicate corner damage which is non existen; however in this case the editor of the photograph extended his line beyond the card itself (amateur mistake or oversight) not sure which but it is convincing enough to me and many others that this line was artificially added.

Something to think about:

IF this significant corner damage previously existed & the card was indeed trimmed, the spacing from the bottom of the text "2003-04 EXQUISITE COLLECTION" and the bottom edge of the card would be so significant, it would be absolutely impossible for the card to meet the dimensions published by Upper Deck for this product.

Now, one could argue that the 03-04 Exquisite cards varied in size due to inaccurate cutting at the factory. I actually believe this to be true as well, BUT in this case there is no amount of margin of error that could be taken into consideration by Beckett to grade the card a 9.5 instead of Authentic Altered.

With the amount of corner damage proposed, a person would need to trim so much off the bottom edge of the card, it would be absolutely impossible for the card to be given a numerical grade.

There is absolutely NO concrete or even plausible evidence given here to substantiate the claim that the card is trimmed.

I would caution anyone & everyone posting unsubstantiated claims to do your due diligence & use common sense prior to "bashing" someone's card. This type of behavior is irresponsible and does absolutely nothing good for the hobby!

Moving forward, professional grading companies exist for a reason; do they make mistakes ABSOLUTELY...But in cases like this people are basically taking the opinions of non paid non professionals over the professionals we pay for their options who actually have an opportunity to examine the card thoroughly and completely in "raw" form. If you don't like the grading companies opinions, don't buy the cards...but don't "kill" other peoples cards based on speculation or hearsay.

03-01-2020, 12:00 PM	#11
usmc03vet Member Join Date: Feb 2016 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 140 veterans_investment_group	In the spirit of transparency, my name is Joe Venegas & I am the owner/operator of Veterans Investment Group based in LA. Now that I have appropriate identified myself, I will start off with the fact that I don't engage/interact/chime in much on here or anywhere else. That being said, I feel that in this case regarding the LeBron RPA #25/99 BGS 9.5/10, it would be an absolute injustice not to say something now. Here are the facts as I understand them: First and foremost the current owners of this card prior to making the purchase did as much legwork as humanly possible to vet this card, to include contacting certain member's of blowoutforums in good faith asking them to help verify that the card is authentic & in it's original factory state free of any alterations. According to these members, the card was 100% original and unaltered. Fast forward, card was subsequently purchased & within a matter of weeks this stance taken by these members was walked back and photographs mysteriously surfaced showing (what I would determine as significant corner damage) to the card. Now, let us examine the "evidence" of trimming proposed by these members. The photograph shown of the card in it's un-graded state points out the bottom left & right corner with notes (the bottom right corner note states, "Debris in scan goes off card") which is alarming in and of itself. If anyone here is familiar with photo editing or photoshopping, you would know that absolutely ANYTHING & or EVERYTHING can be done to a photograph showing what the editor wants the viewer to see, to include adding lines that would indicate corner damage which is non existen; however in this case the editor of the photograph extended his line beyond the card itself (amateur mistake or oversight) not sure which but it is convincing enough to me and many others that this line was artificially added. Something to think about: IF this significant corner damage previously existed & the card was indeed trimmed, the spacing from the bottom of the text "2003-04 EXQUISITE COLLECTION" and the bottom edge of the card would be so significant, it would be absolutely impossible for the card to meet the dimensions published by Upper Deck for this product. Now, one could argue that the 03-04 Exquisite cards varied in size due to inaccurate cutting at the factory. I actually believe this to be true as well, BUT in this case there is no amount of margin of error that could be taken into consideration by Beckett to grade the card a 9.5 instead of Authentic Altered. With the amount of corner damage proposed, a person would need to trim so much off the bottom edge of the card, it would be absolutely impossible for the card to be given a numerical grade. There is absolutely NO concrete or even plausible evidence given here to substantiate the claim that the card is trimmed. I would caution anyone & everyone posting unsubstantiated claims to do your due diligence & use common sense prior to "bashing" someone's card. This type of behavior is irresponsible and does absolutely nothing good for the hobby! Moving forward, professional grading companies exist for a reason; do they make mistakes ABSOLUTELY...But in cases like this people are basically taking the opinions of non paid non professionals over the professionals we pay for their options who actually have an opportunity to examine the card thoroughly and completely in "raw" form. If you don't like the grading companies opinions, don't buy the cards...but don't "kill" other peoples cards based on speculation or hearsay.