Nicely done, great feeling. I cleared my last CFA exam this year, and the feeling of passing all the first time round, in 1.5 years, is tremendous.

Nope, they aren't considered rarities. I should have been explicit with that in my post. However, the line gets a bit more blurred if you take PSA10 and BGS => 9.5 power into account, possibility even including ungraded items that would have likely gotten said gradings if they were so graded.

The people sounding out about altered power in my opinion aren't doing it necessarily due to the availability alone, but because the p9 is a long-standing pillar and representative of the game. Underground Sea may be more expensive than some of the p9 now, but the p9 is still more iconic. As I said, ownership conveys the privilege of choice, but that doesn't deprive others from berating said choice. In the end, no consensus is ever going to be reached on this issue, so it's really a fruitless exercise.

Let me chime in with my opinion. I don't claim to speak for everybody. I can quite confidently say that for the majority of people who deal with rarities, they want rarities clean. To me, that's always made intrinsic sense, as collectors are going for pieces that are supposed to exist in a rare and differentiated form (test prints, summer etc), and the value of those pieces is derived from that fact, not from rarity engendered from alteration. For instance, I'd pay 1.7k for a summer sol ring. I wouldn't pay 500 if it were altered. Textless saga is pretty rare, and just the knowledge that at least a couple of bolts have been signed and/or altered is enough to know that with perfect knowledge, I'd charge more for a clean one.

I'm perfectly fine with people doing alterations on their own cards, as ownership does confer certain benefits, one of which is the ability to choose what you do with your item. On relatively plentiful cards, I think it's a great idea. I don't really like seeing poorly drawn pirate ships on mint beta Seas, but not my cards, not my choice.

I draw the line at bleaching, though. Bleached cards are ruined, period.

It definitely won't be going for anywhere close to 89k, and the same for 70k.

I honestly don't see it going for more than what he paid for it, 20k. It may be the only BGS10, but then and again most people grade using PSA, so that's as much a product of circumstance as it is of grading strictness.