Question Re: Reviews & Bumps

[MattyC]

Was just having this convo on the phone with a fellow collector; curious as to hobbyists thoughts here...

Hypothetically, you own a card. It is graded X-grade by a TPG. It is worth $1000. You review the card because you firmly believe it is a specimen warranting a higher grade. The review is unsuccessful.

You subsequently sell the card for $1000.

The next owner reviews it at the very same TPG, and the card now becomes a GRADE X+1. He sells it for $250,000.

Now, when the TPG reviews the card and bumps it up, they are in effect saying, "We got it wrong earlier."

Yet the first owner who submitted the card paid that TPG, under the assumption the TPG would indeed get it right. He even gave them a chance to review the card and change their verdict.

In this situation, it seems the original submitter was truly wronged, in that he paid for a service that was performed-- only for the service provider to later say they got it wrong, and now got it right... But this correction in grade benefits a new individual.

[HRBAKER]

It's an opinion, not science. What the real problem would be is if the second submitter got the bump bc of who he/she was - not that that has ever happened.

[Tao_Moko]

No offense, but when does this topic become ridiculous? How can a one grade bump increase the selling price by the amount you reference (249,000). The "collector" that paid that amount is the problem in your scenario. You can never prove to me a science of grading that removes the human variable which is why I don't pay for the grade. I'm the wrong person to respond because I only value tpg's as authenticators. The grading is flawed, the security of the holders are flawed and the pop reports are flawed.

[pepis]

No offense, but when does this topic become ridiculous? How can a one grade bump increase the selling price by the amount you reference (249,000). The "collector" that paid that amount is the problem in your scenario. You can never prove to me a science of grading that removes the human variable which is why I don't pay for the grade. I'm the wrong person to respond because I only value tpg's as authenticators. The grading is flawed, the security of the holders are flawed and the pop reports are flawed.

Basically what you're saying is that everything about tpg's is flawed!!
i agree to a certain point,,but for the most part i disagree i think they're
all about controlling the market, and they do a great job at it,,
i was once a dealer at the biggest card show ever (F&S) in the mid/late 90s
and my booth was across the PSA booth from the 1st day they came in til
they left, and i witness some of that controlling first hand.

[drcy]

Many years back, I paid an hourly wage for someone to help me part time on a resale sales project. When a sale made a big profit, he said if something he worked on made a profit he should get a percentage of the return. I said, "I'll agree to give you a percentage of the profits, but only if you agree to be responsible for the same percentage of the losses." He said he'd stick with the hourly wage.

Translation: If you happily accept bumps in grade that financially benefit you, you don't get to complain about bumps in grade that financially hurt you.

[steve B]

I mostly agree.

The exception would be if they were doing something like just listing stuff that had already been Id'd and lotted but found something special that had been missed. I think then it might be nice for them to get a little something extra.

One time I was at a dealers and got to look at some crds they'd made an offer on but didn't have a solid del yet. When I casually remarked that it was the first time I'd seen 49 Leaf high numbers (what they were called then, despite being mixed in with the regualr ones) There was a bit of surprise shown followed by another look and some consternation. In the end they explained that they'd totally missed the fact that some were the tough ones, and that made the batch worth a lot more so they revised the offer. Apparently everyone else had missed it too.

I got a few nice discounts later on, but not the massively discounted SP that I'd hinted at. I never figured on getting it anyway and didn't push it, and the unexpected discounts later were a pretty nice perk for spotting the SPs.

I like Ebay shopping the big dealers who have people helping them. Lots of nice stuff that slides under the radar, mostly stamps, but it's nice to catch a mislisted BIN now and then.

Steve B