Buy the card, not the grade - stories

[vintagebaseballcardguy]

Originally Posted by jchcollins

"Buy the card, not the grade" I think today is more important than ever. To me this goes to a core reputation problem - in addition to being found wanting in the "expertise" area (what expertise? how do we know since they don't routinely prove that "experts" are grading cards over and above middle school kids...) there is the problem with consistency over time which at least as this year has gone by has proven to be more and more obvious that the PSA 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9's of yesteryear are not necessarily on par with those graded in 2017 or 2018. How they continue to get away with this - to say nothing of wildly inaccurate promised turn times - increasingly feels like a bubble to me. I'm just wondering how long before it bursts.

Not only that but over time standards seem to change at SGC and PSA, and the flips sometimes change with them. Now it isn't even enough to have a card with a particular grade given by a particular TPG because that TPG could go through a big change, like SGC has recently. Then, collectors look at slabbed cards from a certain era and think they really aren't as good as the slab might say they are, depending on the era in which the card was graded. Right now, there is a thread on the prewar side discussing a collector's SGC results from a recent submission and how that collector was shocked at how tough SGC graded his cards versus some examples of SGC graded cards with old flips. Increasingly, I am quite happy with ungraded cards that meet my requirements. I am not above cracking out a graded card for a set either.

[jchcollins]

Originally Posted by vintagebaseballcardguy

Not only that but over time standards seem to change at SGC and PSA, and the flips sometimes change with them. Now it isn't even enough to have a card with a particular grade given by a particular TPG because that TPG could go through a big change, like SGC has recently. Then, collectors look at slabbed cards from a certain era and think they really aren't as good as the slab might say they are, depending on the era in which the card was graded. Right now, there is a thread on the prewar side discussing a collector's SGC results from a recent submission and how that collector was shocked at how tough SGC graded his cards versus some examples of SGC graded cards with old flips. Increasingly, I am quite happy with ungraded cards that meet my requirements. I am not above cracking out a graded card for a set either.

Yeah pretty soon we'll have vintage (era) listed along with slab type (era) and there will be a cross reference to value. Let's see this is a PSA 8 from the early 00's, so it's worth less than the PSA 8 from the early 10's...

[KendallCat]

Here are a few of my examples for the thread.

[bswhiten]

Last weeks pickup. Not sure what made it a 1 since there isn’t a pinhole but looks great to me

[Sportscards1086]

I have one...here is a nice 61. Any reason why it's a 5 is beyond me.

[jchcollins]

Originally Posted by Sportscards1086

I have one...here is a nice 61. Any it's a 5 is beyond me.

Agreed. It’s not centered outside of 6 range either.


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[mq711]

PSA has gotten so inconsistent (or faulty QC) lately I've had to returned two eBay purchases because of "bad grades." A PSA 8 had two bent lower corners and edge damage and another was so out of focus that the faces weren't under the player's hats on a team card (neither of which was observable on the post). TPG claim they issue opinions but they have guidelines that should create a somewhat known standard. I think all collectors should refuse to keep cards that another collector/dealer got a "lucky" grade on; don't be the last one holding the 5 in an 8 holder.