Inspecting a card - the basics

 Alteration Overview

 Card Soaking

 Detecting bleached cards

 Detecting trimmed cards

 Card sanding

 Detecting a rebacked card

 Aging and toning

 Detecting recolored cards

Detecting rebuilt corners

 Reglossed cards

 Errors and oddities

 Other alterations

Card Sanding - in depth

Trimming an edge or a corner is just not limited to the use of blades or other sharp instruments, sandpaper can also be used. The preferred sanding devise is a standard emery board. An emery board comes in a variety of shapes, sizes and grits. Ordinarily it is used to shape and file such things as fingernails. It is typically seen as a small flat double-sided rigid cardboard with sandpaper of different grits on each side. They can be about as long as a pencil or shorter and in a variety of colors. These can be purchased at almost any convenience, grocery or general merchandise store and are offered at a reasonable price. Card doctors like to use emery boards because they are easy to work with, sturdy and cheap. This is not to say that any other type or style of sandpaper will not accomplish the same job but for the purpose of this post, we will use emery boards as the example

Sometimes altering just a small portion of an edge or corner is desired. An emery board can be used to shape or sharpen a corner without altering an entire edge. It can also be used to remove the high and low spots caused by other forms of trimming.

Card sanding will once more reveal itself as a lighter color under a halogen light, this is because the normal natural tone has been removed exposing new cardboard. When sanding is performed it's not uncommon to see an edge have a normal tone color almost all the way down then suddenly become lighter at a corner. Sanding will also give the edge a flat look, as is seen in almost all cards that have been trimmed missing that rounded-type factory cut.

Using a loupe and under a light inspect the areas that look abnormal. A sanded card can leave distinct traces of lifted small fibers or raw cardboard where it has been altered. These tiny hair-like fibers can give the appearance that a card has been "roughed up" or in other cases sanding a card can make the edge or corner look smooth...but those tiny lifted fibers will still be there. Look for areas that a very flat with edge borders showing a small lip, as sanding tends to put downward pressure on the cardboard and push the border-edge outward. Even gently sanding with a fine grit paper will leave behind single or bi-directional sanding or scratch marks. Again, pay close attention to the edges by the corners.