SGC Can’t Seem To Identify Trimmed Cards

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I’ve been pretty supportive of SGC over the years, even using their card grading services for many cards in my personal collection.

However, another recent discovery of a trimmed card in an SGC holder concerns me somewhat.

Here’s the deal: a Blowout Forums user (who else?) discovered that an SGC 6 1936 Goudey World Gum Joe Dimaggio card was trimmed, resubmitted to SGC, and ultimately rewarded with a new SGC 8.5 grade. 

Check out the comparison from user CornDog below.

Now, as shown, this wasn’t just a slight trim of the edges. A significant area of the card’s left and right sides has been trimmed. 

As I’ve stressed in the past, 99.9% of these problems could be solved with some photo-based AI that keeps a record of all previously graded cards.

It might not effectively catch something that was graded by another third-party grader, but it would be a great start.

How does SGC not have the proper measurements of this card? How do they not, under magnification, see that the edges have been trimmed, which should be evident in most cases? 

The original SGC Dimaggio was sold at auction in 2013 for over $10,000, while the re-graded card in a new holder (with an SGC 8.5 grade) sold at a Memory Lane auction for $117K in July of 2021. 

Grading companies make mistakes, but this one is so blatantly off that it sort of scratches my head. How is this kind of error justified?

And if it were the first time, it would be something I could write off, but SGC (and PSA) have been notable offenders in the past. 

In 2020, I discussed another BlowoutForums discovery of a trimmed 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth card. In that case, an SGC 5 Goudey Ruth was trimmed and regraded as an SGC 6.5.  

That one wasn’t quite as obvious, but something that should have definitely been noticed. 

So, what’s the moral of the story here? Should collectors avoid SGC?

I’m not ready to put my neck out on the line to tell you to blacklist SGC.

But the trimming concerns are a big red flag.

Let’s be clear: SGC isn’t the only one in this. 

PSA has made plenty of mistakes over the years.  We can’t forget the infamous Wayne Gretzky T206 Wagner card that was later found to be trimmed. 

The key for collectors today is that we must closely examine any graded cards for evidence of trimming.

Anytime I see an older, vintage card with crisp, clean borders and sharp corners, a red flag always goes up. You need to always assume that the card might have been trimmed and graded numerically.

The unfortunate part is that the graders are supposed to help stop these sorts of card doctoring from happening.

At the end of the day, if we can’t trust the card graders, what’s the point of grading?

I’m inviting SGC to All Vintage Cards for an interview. Let’s hope they answer my requests.

What do you think of this? Can SGC and the other card graders, like PSA or Beckett, be trusted as an honest third party?  

Let us know in the comments below.