Posted By:
Kevin CummingsI responded in a similar fashion in the thread about mismatched fronts and backs. I believe these things we all collect are intended to be pictures first, some of which happen to be supplemented with printed information on the rear. If you accept the premise that these are really picture cards, then the quality of the picture ought to weigh into the grade regardless of whether there is any printing on the back. As long as we would be talking objective criteria only (dark versus light; in focus versus out of focus) it seems to make perfect sense to me to take the quality of the picture into account.
But as much as I don't agree with the technical grading process whereby damage to a blank back negatively affects the overall grade, I think it makes sense to include that criteria since to ignore it completely would give unfair advantage to blank backed cards.
Following the "picture first" philosophy, perhaps the back condition for all cards should not weigh as heavily as the front in the overall grade.