I am reformed and do not bait anymore
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For sure. Iām surprised to see card cleaning outfits have had booths set up at some conventions Iāve attended recently, including Card Party Orlando last year. I was caught a little off guard watching them clean and alter cards right there in the open. If I were running these shows Iād tell those companies to go pound sand but I guess unfortunately itās all about the $$$.
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Literally all they need to do is a āsniff testā - the polish absolutely reeks.
Polishing Sports cards has been around for decades - it isnāt a new phenomenon.
I know so many people who use it and donāt disclose it, all are larger IG accounts too.
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what if they give it a small sun tan to wipe the smell?
Theyāre the one being underhand yet are afraid of PSA stealing the card. Unreal 
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You have absolutely no way of knowing that for certain.
Regardless, graded or not. It doesnāt really make a difference. People only know about card cleaning now because some guy realised that they could make exponentially more money from selling their cleaning product than they could make from restoring cards.
Card cleaning/restoration is a money maker, therefore itās reasonable to believe that people were doing it more on the downlow pre-2020. I would guess that it probably started with sports cards, around the time that better condition cards starting fetching higher prices.
Sure, itās more mainstream now, but itās naive to think that this wasnāt happening before. We just didnāt know about it.
I never specified Pokemon, I just said ācardsā, graded or ungraded. As Iāve said above, people were almost certainly doing this with sports cards pre-2020. Iām guessing they would have started doing this with Pokemon when the prices were high enough (2017-2018?).
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As someone who has been grading with PSA since 2011, and actively involved in a very, very niche grading community back then, I can confidently say that ācard cleaningā was not a common practice . . . or even a consideration. Mint collections were plentiful and affordable on eBay until about 2016. Not to mention there wasnāt much profit potential in grading back then. Outside some big chase cards, most vintage holos in PSA 8 were under $20 and lost money. PSA 9ās would generally break even or earn a small profit, and PSA 10ās would earn a small premium. For perspective, 1st Edition Base set holos in PSA 9 were under $100 back then . . . multiple Charizard sat for $400 or Best Offer. That price was too high for me, so I bought raw and graded two myself. I definitely regret not buying a PSA 10 Charizard when they were still under $2,000 though.
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It was definitely not happening since the beginning. Feel free to provide references of services that existed 10+ years ago and I will gladly agree.
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Iām kind of interested (and scared) to see if cleaning will become the normā¦
The biggest middleman in the UK now offers it as a service. People donāt seem shy about telling people that they are using products, like they did back when kurts card care first came onto the scene a few years ago.
It seems to be getting normalised 
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To be fair, there probably has been isolated situations of early ācleanersā prior to the Pokemon Boom in 2020, but Iād consider those anomalies or exceptions. It just wasnāt necessary nor was there much (if any) incentive yet, until the financial opportunity arose.
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???
Insane. I assume theyāre not an authorised dealer.
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And there is really no fighting it, unfortunately. Any criticism or logic about card altering is deflected with the same flawed analogies about restoration or claims of gatekeeping the hobby.
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Exactly! When psa 10 1st base charizard was $700, and PSA didnāt even recognize shadowless cards, I doubt cleaning was a thing. But Iād gladly listen to any evidence of it happening during that time.
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Here is a forum thread from 2010 where people are talking about it.
They mention a guy called āDick Towleā who offers a card restoration service. So I googled Dick Towle and found he has a website where he restores cards.
Apparently heās been in business for 23 years.
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Iād be curious how many pokemon cards he received back then as Iāve never heard of this guy.
Well this is just one example, I could probably find more.
Itās very reasonable to believe that if there is a way for people to make money doing shady things, people will be doing it. So I would guess that the guys who were restoring sports cards on the down low will have probably moved into Pokemon as soon as Pokemon cards started selling for say more than $100.
The only reason we have ridges on coins is because certain individuals would clip the coins, smelt them down and make new coins. If there is an exploit, people will do it.
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They are. They say its just āwater based solutionsā but stillā¦
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I appreciate you referencing that guy but itās still speculation, as that doesnāt confirm anything with PokĆ©mon. I was actually around during that time, and probably one of the largest and longest time submitters of PokĆ©mon cards, and never heard of this guy or anyone cleaning cards.
To add more historical context, sports and pokemon had little to no crossover until maybe 2016. Even then it was miniscule. Pwcc and other auction houses didnāt even sell pokemon cards until 2016ish, and their blocks were maybe 20-100 cards a month.
I canāt overstate how most things that are considered a standard today simply werenāt 10+ years ago. Pokemon wasnāt financially viable unless you lived minimally in a grandma house!
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I know people have shared examples of graded cards that have been āKurted onā in the past, but I think it could be good if others could post images here so users know what to look out for when it comes to card altering.
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