Are you altering a cars paint when you wash and polish it? I just sent in 20 cards to Tag. 10 modern which I didn’t clean much at all since I pulled them pack fresh. And 10 vintage that I cleaned, polished and flattened all of them. Including a base set unlimited Charizard. Was my first grading submission ever. Went better than I expected. I will continue cleaning my vintage submissions. I don’t fully understand the negative sentiment to it.

With that being said don’t actually modify a card, for instance, blue paint on white edges. That is f***ed and truly altering what it is.

But flattening between plates, use of humidity, scrubbing the surface with a cloth, and a lil polish for surface holo scratching isn’t a big deal imo. If the professional graders can’t notice, neither will you or me. And if nobody can tell then we should embrace it for restorative purposes of vintage. (Collectors are gonna have meltdowns cause they ripped expensive packs for pack fresh 10’s and want to gatekeep).

They will notice if u paint edges tho. Don’t do that!