Quote:
Originally Posted by drcy
The PSA type system is a cataloging system, and, from what I've seen, PSA does an accurate job in authenticating photos. So I'm not coming hard down on them or their authentication abilities.
But collectors shouldn't treat the label as the be all and end all, and know that photographs are nuanced, and can't simply be defined by a type system.
And my additional addition that I often add is that PSA and other photo authenticators should never ever install a condition grading system. If that happened, ever other photo would be trimmed to get a better grade.
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This exactly. Just as with cards you will hear over and over "buy the card, not the flip." What is on the photo's "flip" as it comes back from PSA is a great summary of several of the aspects that affect a photo's desirability to collectors, but there are a number of subjective elements that figure into a photo's value as well.
The way I see it, knowing the Type under which PSA has classified the photo, buyers who are not looking at it in person don't have to try and discern tell-tale signs that would enable them to make the determination themselves. This can be particularly difficult when buying based on an image in an eBay listing taken with a crappy camera phone that only shows the front face of the photo. I may be able to discern whether it is a clear image of a desirable subject, but it is often difficult to parse much more than that from a novice seller's eBay posting. The seller's written description may provide some additional clues, but the terminology can often be misused, or terms from other collecting niches are misapplied. If I know what Type classification PSA has assigned to the photo, I can focus more on elements not covered in the Type classification, such as the clarity and desirability of the central image in the photo itself, rather than trying to determine if the print was produced more-recently than advertised. For every Rhys or David, whose descriptions accurately depict all I would need to know other than "do I like the image," there are a hundred would-be photo sellers who I wish would submit to PSA, just so that it wouldn't be such a crap-shoot as to what I can expect when I get that photo in the mail.
To me, this is similar to seeing a grade assigned to a card in that, while I may be looking at other aspects besides what is shown on the flip in determining whether to buy the card, at least I know that it is authentic before moving on to those other observations, rather than spending time scrutinizing how sharp the corners are on a misrepresented modern reprint.