The green stadium seats shown on the baseball card are empty as Stan Musial, wearing a crisp white uniform, grips a bat and digs in. His eyes gazetoward the pitcher over his right shoulder, his white teeth peeking out from under a grin. It's almost as though on this vividly colored card, issued in 1952by the Bowman Gum Company, "Stan the Man" has spotted a fat fastball.

The card's lone obvious blemish is a stray black print mark on the white frame. Even with the defect, it sold in an online auction in late 2017 for$2,800.

Seven months later, a 1952 Bowman Stan Musial card without that print mark sold for $28,100. Collectors have since claimed the two cards were in fact thesame item, improperly altered to inflate its value then auctioned off a second time. Now, the FBI is asking questions about that card and hundreds of otherslike it, as a scandal over trading cards that have allegedly been fraudulently altered rocks the billion-dollar memorabilia hobby.

Federal law enforcement officials have launched a criminal investigation encompassing one of baseball card collecting's largest appraisal firms, awell-known sports memorabilia dealer and one of the hobby's largest auction houses, among others, according to four collectors who have been interviewed byinvestigators.

The scandal started after a pair of online collectors began identifying and documenting cards that were allegedly improperly modified. They've identified316 such cards, retouched by nearly a dozen "card doctors," which sold for a combined $1.4 million. The four collectors who spoke with investigators say theFBI suspects thousands of additional cards with similar issues are still circulating through the hobby. (All four collectors spoke to The Post on condition ofanonymity, concerned about the repercussions of discussing an ongoing investigation.)

At the heart of the scandal is the memorabilia market's system for assessing baseball cards, a term widely used to describe any athletic trading card.Collectors rely on grading companies - California-based Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA), part of publicly traded Collectors Universe, dominates themarket - to help determine the condition and market price of cards. An improved grade can increase a card's value several times over. Hence the existence ofso-called "doctors," who take worn cards, alter them to make them appear in better condition and resubmit them to grading companies in search of a bettermark.

Investigators are asking questions about one such alleged "doctor," Gary Moser, implicated by the online research, according to the four collectors who havetalked to the FBI. Investigators are also asking about other smaller-scale "doctors," along with PSA's grading practices and an Oregon-based auction house,PWCC, according to those four collectors.

PWCC acknowledged in a statement that it is cooperating with law enforcement officials over cards graded by PSA and submitted by Moser. A PSA spokesmandeclined an interview request, but said the company was conducting its own investigation and cooperating with law enforcement. It also decertified the Musialcard, a move that indicates the company no longer stands by the grade it once assigned. Moser denied ever altering cards. An FBI spokesperson would not confirmthe existence of a current probe into PWCC, PSA or Moser, citing Bureau policy.

To read the complete article, see:
Baseball cardcollectors suspected rampant fraud in their hobby. Now the FBI is investigating.(https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2019/07/18/baseball-card-collectors-suspected-rampant-fraud-their-hobby-now-fbi-is-investigating/)

To read earlier E-Sylum articles on coin doctoring, see:
ON NUMISMATIC DOCTORING AND CONSERVATION(https://www.coinbooks.org/v22/esylum_v22n22a11.html)
MORE ON NUMISMATIC DOCTORING AND CONSERVATION(https://www.coinbooks.org/v22/esylum_v22n23a14.html)
NOTES FROM E-SYLUM READERS: JUNE 23, 2019 : The Grade Depends on the Grader(https://www.coinbooks.org/v22/esylum_v22n25a10.html)