There is much debate in the hobby regarding this card between those who accept the card as it is and those who are not happy about the restoration of the card. Regardless of what you think about the card's restoration, it is what it is. It's a nice looking example of the most iconic and valuable baseball card in the hobby.
True, the borders are all newly added and the back has been completely rebuilt, but it is also labeled as "Restored" and only graded Authentic so it's not being misrepresented as it is.
Let's take a look at the card before the restoration.
Ok, so that's a rough looking card. Three borders completely trimmed off. A fairly large spot of paper loss at the top of the front. The back is either missing or covered in lined paper that is glued to it. Either way, it's bad. At least the image of Honus is still pretty decent.
It took $14,000 of professional restoration to bring the card back to where it is today. Let's take a look at the restored version now.
Quite a transformation huh? Seriously, how did it go from the before to this?
The argument (or debate) is whether or not this has gone too far. What is too much to add to a terrible condition card to restore it? Is it ok to add some color here or there? Or to remove paper that was glued to the back of a card? Are those innocent enough to be acceptable or is no type of change acceptable?
Some folks even argued that a person could take an expensive/rare card and cut it up into several pieces and then "restore" each of the pieces to make several new cards and sell them off for huge profits. I think that's a bit of a stretch personally, but I understand the idea.
So what do you think about this card? Is it fair to consider it an authentic Wagner or no? Would you mind owning this one knowing how much is not original or would you only want a completely unrestored example? Would you rather have this card in the "before" state? Let me know in the comments. I'd love to hear from some of you.
Enjoy the hobby all...it's a great one.
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