Pre-War Cards

The Babe Ruth card alleged to be altered saw a price gain of nearly $20,000

Babe Ruth’s E121 American Caramel card is one of his more popular caramel issues. The card features a classic pose of Ruth as an outfielder with the Yankees and is highly sought after by collectors.

It’s also the latest card alleged to be altered on the Blowout Forums discovered just today.

The allegation is a similar one. A PSA 4 (MK) card was sold, and is claimed to have been cracked open, cleaned, and resold for a profit. And like the nearly six-figure Joe Jackson card just discovered, this one was also regraded by SGC. SGC gave the card a grade of 3.5. According to the Blowout post, the original card was bought for $15,600 and then resold as an SGC 3.5 for a whopping $32,911 — more than twice its original amount.

If you’re somewhat new to grading, the SGC grade might seem lower to you. After all, isn’t 3.5 lower than 4? Well, yes. But the PSA 4 included a MK designation due to writing on the back. Qualifiers like that, to many collectors, usually drop a card’s grade by about two full grades. Thus, the PSA 4 (MK) is really closer to a PSA 2.

The Blowout post alleges the writing on the back was removed in some manner, resulting in the higher grade. The card was originally sold by a traditional auction house and then resold through PWCC.

Again, the cards being discovered as part of this scandal aren’t problematic simply because they are being resubmitted. Collectors resubmit cards all the time in the hopes of getting a better grade. The problem with these specific cards is that they are allegedly undergoing alterations before being regraded. These alterations, of course, are not being disclosed. If they were, the regraded versions would come back with a lower grade and/or a designation indicating that they were altered.

New to the altered cards scandal? Here’s a brief rundown of what is happening.

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