[barrysloate]

We've had this discussion many times on the board, and the overwhelming opinion about blank backed cards, specifically Old Judges, is that none of the grading services understand how to grade them. There should be a penalty for back damage, even on a blank backed card, but it should account for only a small part of the total grade. The single most important factor on an Old Judge is the photo quality, and I don't believe this is given any consideration whatsoever in determining the final grade.

A grading company that would give bonus points for strong photo contrast, and a penalty for light photos, would be hugely popular among OJ collectors. However, if your question is could a new grading service emerge and succeed if they were willing to consider this, I would say it would be a very long shot. I think the best business model for a new emerging grading company would be to get the grade right every time- period. I know this is theoretically impossible but that should be the company's goal. I know a couple of new grading companies have emerged recently but they do nothing more than what the established companies do, only they probably do it worse. If a new company emerged that could do a much better job with both grading accurately and with detecting altered cards, I think it would have a pretty good chance of succeeding. It would be an uphill climb but it could be done.