General Forum

I thought I would bring this up here,  There are A LOT of scanned images on the site that have the  of number on serial numbered cards removed ( i.e. instead of 20/99 the image is showing just /99) There are many showing up on the IR reports. A comment has been added on several of the IR reports starting the discussion whether they should be considered altered and the images should be removed or left on the site as is. There are so many I thought  the discussion should be brought out here,  What do other members think about this?  I personally think they are altered and should be removed/ replaced just wondering what others think how they should be handled.

If it's possible that the SN could have been missed (for example, Signature Rookies forgot to add the "20" of 20/99, which I think I may even have a few examples of) then I don't see a problem with it. Not sure how you get an altered image with no SN except for a mock-up though, and I don't think mock-ups should be allowed. 

Same issue when it comes to Topps Now/Panini Instant cards with no SN showing. Tells me that the scan was lifted from a different website and it's an inaccurate representation of the card (no matter how trivial you want to get, that's the truth).

One thing that I would be okay with is if it was a rare card (say, /10 or less) with a mock-up image temporarily. That could be helpful to keep in place with the crazy parallels and everything else companies are producing these days for identification purposes only. I think a condition of that is that the scan should be tagged as needing replacing until we get an in-hand or actual scan in place.

Short answer - no, images with missing serial numbers should not be allowed, with an exception permitted if a member can show proof of a card in hand with a SN that was missed or possibly temporarily if it's a rare card.

I was the one who added the comment to the original large batch of IRs this weekend surrounding this issue. All the scans are fromt he same member. My comment was thus: 

Before we remove this...the member that posted these images almost always posts them without the # out of whatever. Perhaps he just wants to keep what cards he owns private. Is removing the # out of whatever warrenting removal of images. Personally I have no dog in this fight just putting it out there.

Now I can say that looking at the resolved portinon of the IR report page, all those have been marked resolved, with no member "credited" for solving it, and all the images are still there. My guess ADMIN pushed it through without removing images. Just a guess.

I have seen a common practice of some people blurring or covering their specific card number when adding scans of serially numbered cards for many years now. I personally don't know why they do that. In that case though, I would think the image is okay. But when people post mock-ups where there actually isn't a number printed on the card, that's wrong. It's not showing the actual card that was produced.

Here is my three cents. If I see a card that I own already scanned with the SN fudged, I will replace it without worrying about the points. Why? Because I agree that they are altered. They could be thought to be promos put in the wrong spot. I have no issue as any image is better than no image but if this is a "museum" of sorts, accuracy is the most important thing. I don't get emotional, I'll just fix them. If they get panty knots ..............meh.

A card that comes with a serial number is to be shown with a serial number. There is no excuse to altering the image to obscure or digitally remove the serial number. Admin has made it perfectly clear in the past that these images are to be removed. They are altered, and that counts as "Incomplete".

Edit: Additionally, the member in question has been known to lift images from other sources, and obscuring the SN is propably their subtle way of "covering their tracks". Please report these and if you work the IRs, put these through to be removed. Thank you.

If you look at the rules for the Database, visible on every page you go to upload an image, it clearly states not to post altered images. 

Removing any part of the card is an alteration. 

It can't get any clearer than that. There is no gray area, no room for debate...these violate the rules. 

The images were either digitally altered (photoshop) or they are mock-up sample images.  Either way they don't belong.  And this has been discussed before:

https://www.tradingcarddb.com/Forum.cfm/Page/S/ID/9274/?MODE=VIEW&ThreadID=10363&PageIndex=1

If the serial numbers are removed from the image, the card images should be removed. Plain and simple. I am not sure what this user is worried about by having their card serial number on the site. There is no database that has the owners information based on that cards serial number. I can't look up the serial number of the card and then find out that users personal information like name, address, phone number, social security number, credit card and so on. I have looked at these images with the removed serial numbers and have always been very annoyed.

Ok will remove away, buy how did the initial batch get "resolved" without someone resolving it and the images stay. Just curious.

https://www.tradingcarddb.com/InaccuraciesManager.cfm?MODE=VIEW&ID=41621&PageIndex=2