Nearly four years after a scandal in the sports card world so big, it sent the FBI to the hobby elite’s doorstep, six-figure pictures of men are still being found to be trimmed or altered.
The recent discovery of a trimmed 1936 Goudey World Wide Gum Joe DiMaggio was published on the Blowout Forum. It last sold for $117,604 in a Memory Lane auction in 2021.
Fraudsters will trim or alter cards in an effort to improve their condition. Collectors pay a premium for a “pristine” or “mint” picture of a man.
The 1936 WWG Joe DiMaggio card in question has origins dating back to 2013 when it sold for $10,157.
Between 2013 and when it sold again in 2021, significant work was done to try and improve the condition of the card.
SGC originally graded the card a 6.
After some handy work from a fraudster, the card came back an 8.5.
Vintage cards have characteristics in the way they were printed that makes each one unique like a fingerprint.
The images of the DiMaggio card above share over 21 identical print dots, flaws or stains.
Several members of the Blowout Forum have spent countless hours identifying cards that have been altered or trimmed. The work is tedious and time consuming.
It’s not going unnoticed. Unlike four years ago, some grading companies are looking into cards they may have graded incorrectly.
SGC was aware of the DiMaggio situation and was taking steps to get the card back to examine it.
That was until the card showed up recently in a PSA 7 holder.
We will wait and see if PSA comments on the card.
This isn’t the first time a 1936 WWG Joe DiMaggio card has been at the center of hobby controversy.
In 2017, a (now deceased) customer of PWCC accused company owner, Brent Huigens, of altering a 1936 WWG Joe DiMaggio.
The card went from a SGC 4 to a PSA 7.
PWCC employee Betsy Huigens posted on the Net54 Forum in 2017 that, “we did indeed engage PSA to verify the accuracy of their assessment on this 1936 WWG DiMaggio. As we strongly believed, the card is graded accurately and this was re-confirmed by PSA prior the auction sale.”
In addition to the trimming allegations, explosive text messages from PWCC CEO Brent Huigens appear to be asking the consigner of the DiMaggio to bid on their own item. Often this is referred to as “shill bidding.”
Huigens confirmed on Net54 the texts are real.
Betsy Huigens told Sports Card Radio in 2019, “It is worth mentioning that in our definition, a ‘shill bid’ is a bid placed in falsehood without intention of being honored. Shill bidding is something we monitor and manage carefully.”
In 2021 online website eBay suspended PWCC from selling on their marketplace. eBay claimed in a statement that individuals associated with PWCC engaged in shill bidding.
