For vintagetoppsguy and begsu1013, I agree you aren't going to be able to pop a PSA 10 and resubmit it and get another PSA 10 grade every time, and I even mentioned that in my earlier post, but, only 1 out of a 100 chance of getting another PSA 10 grade?!?!?!?! Not so sure the risk is anywhere near that high. That had to be one awfully good card to have gotten a PSA 10 in the first place and to suggest that if you blindly resubmitted it as a raw card that you'd only get that same 10 grade about 1% of the time is a pretty damning accusation of exactly how arbitrary the PSA graders and their grading systems and quality control really are. I'll bet if you asked someone at PSA what the chance of just blindly pulling one of their graded cards out of a holder and resubmitting and getting the same grade was, it would be a hell of a lot closer to 100% than just 1%.
Now if you're suggesting that by breaking the card out of the holder in the first place would likely cause some damage to the card so it would never be able to get the PSA 10 grade again, well that doesn't make sense either. If PSA was to make these holders so that no matter what you did to break out a card it would have some slight damage occur to it, they would be in huge trouble. First off, there are collectors who do not like cards in these holders at all, and break them out once they own them. If doing so causes damage to the cards inside, that won't make those collectors happy. And what about PSA's business plan when they went to the half-grades? They were specifically looking to generate business by having people bring their holders back and break out those cards to have them re-graded. And if doing so caused additional damage to the cards, how could PSA ever upgrade those cards, or even have kept the same grades, without virtually lying to everyone about the grade and ignoring the damage. And finally, by suggesting such a low probability that the card would get another PSA 10 grade, you've effectively made the argument that the initial grade given to the card was virtually worthless and completely arbitrary on the part of PSA and their graders, which I am pretty sure they would vehemently disagree with you on.
However, if that arbitrary grading scenario were in fact true, then you have just given PSA, or any grading company for that matter, the ability to basically print money by slapping on a higher grade to a card that really doesn't deserve it. And that also then would completely erode the trust that collectors put into these grades and grading companies. I hate to say it but, on a certain level, PSA, or any of these grading companies, be it for cards, stamps, comics, coins whatever, are akin to the U.S. Treasury that prints our money. They have the ability by what they do to create and increase the value of items. The U.S. Treasury has special inks and paper designed so they cannot be duplicated and reproduced. What is there to protect and/or make these holders so they can never be copied or duplicated then? To my knowledge, nothing. It would likely not be a cost effective business plan. Then there is the Secret Service, FBI and Treasury Department, which are all constantly on the lookout for counterfeiters and scammers, and the myriad of rules and protections so that no one outside of the Treasury can gain access to the inks and special materials used to create our money. I'm also pretty sure that the people working in the Treasury department that are responsible for creating our currency are subject to strict control and regulation of their activities, were and are continually checked and re-checked as to their background and other factors, and watched and subject to whatever is necessary to insure as much as possible that our money is safe and not easily copied. And yet, it still happens. This is absolutely no condemnation of PSA, or any other grading company but, do you really think any of them comes anywhere within even a light year of the level of control and protection that the U.S. Treasury and our government exerts over the production, distribution and control of our currency?
All said, I feel criminals are basically lazy and the smarter ones look for the easiest, simplest and safest way for them to take advantage of others. With the recent meteoric rises we've been seeing in these ultra hi-graded rookie cards, is anyone really surprised to see things like this happening.
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