Question about vintage Post cereal cards

[timfsu2k]

I recently picked up a 1962 Post cereal card that was cut out of the box with extra room all around the card. Should I attempt to cut it down to the proper size? My wife has a professional paper trimming device that would easily and neatly slice through the cardboard, but is this advisable? If it were cut perfectly, the card would be a stunner but not sure if I sent it in to be graded if PSA or BGS would knock off due to the obviously recent trimming. Advice?

 

[porkchops]

In this case,I'd say cut it.
Since most of these were cut
by kids durring the sixties,I'd think
a perfect,clean cut would only enhance
the card & grade.
Ken

 

[otgoal]

I don't know if this will help, but here are two short articles from Beckett and PSA.

From beckett.com:
Are hand-cut cards graded differently from other cards? Yes and no. While the technical grading remains the same, the fact that the cards were issued in a different fashion than regular pack-issued cards is taken into account. One of the most important factors in grading hand-cut cards will be overall card size. Even hand-cut cards have proper sizes cataloged and would need to "measure up" for grading.

From PSA:
In order for PSA to actually assign a grade to any of the cards that possess visible/defined borders on all four sides, evidence of that border must be present. If the cut exceeds the visible border for the card in question, PSA will encapsulate the card as "Authentic" only. If the card is severely undersized and suffers in overall eye-appeal, the graders may deem the card not suitable for authentication or reject the card as minimum sized altogether.

Keep in mind that, for cards that do not possess visible/defined borders, the cards must still fall within a certain size requirement for that particular issue in order to qualify for an actual grade. In other words, the borders must be virtually full in order for a grade to be rendered. Otherwise, as stated above, a label of "Authentic" will be assigned or, in some cases, the cards may fall short of the size requirement altogether. This is not an exact science, however, PSA will do its best to provide consistent guidelines for these types of cards.

 

[timfsu2k]

In this case,I'd say cut it.
Since most of these were cut
by kids durring the sixties,I'd think
a perfect,clean cut would only enhance
the card & grade.
Ken

Thanks for your input Ken.

I don't know if this will help, but here are two short articles from Beckett and PSA.

From beckett.com:
Are hand-cut cards graded differently from other cards? Yes and no. While the technical grading remains the same, the fact that the cards were issued in a different fashion than regular pack-issued cards is taken into account. One of the most important factors in grading hand-cut cards will be overall card size. Even hand-cut cards have proper sizes cataloged and would need to "measure up" for grading.

From PSA:
In order for PSA to actually assign a grade to any of the cards that possess visible/defined borders on all four sides, evidence of that border must be present. If the cut exceeds the visible border for the card in question, PSA will encapsulate the card as "Authentic" only. If the card is severely undersized and suffers in overall eye-appeal, the graders may deem the card not suitable for authentication or reject the card as minimum sized altogether.

Keep in mind that, for cards that do not possess visible/defined borders, the cards must still fall within a certain size requirement for that particular issue in order to qualify for an actual grade. In other words, the borders must be virtually full in order for a grade to be rendered. Otherwise, as stated above, a label of "Authentic" will be assigned or, in some cases, the cards may fall short of the size requirement altogether. This is not an exact science, however, PSA will do its best to provide consistent guidelines for these types of cards.

Interesting. So basically as long as I cut the card close to perfect they shouldn't have a problem with it? They obviously know these are hand cut, and I believe they label them that way. I might give it a shot and take off just a fraction at a time.

 

[otgoal]

They're listed as standard 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" cards, so try to keep it as close to that as possible.
Good luck!