"Grade Tech" let off too easy~

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Posted By: Brian C Daniels 

I have letters from three other "grading companies" that have started over the past four years responding to my request for backround and experience information.
The fluff response was "nice". But the fact was the guys had limited experience and were merely "collectors" trying to capitalize on the craze of incapsulation. So they purchased a spectrometer and a plastic sealing machine and of course were Engineers! Big deal. Thise credentilas,if you will are no different than 1000's of collectors you guys ran into at the national. If they are just starting out, the fact they graded a reprint card any advanced collector would notice from 10 feet away is not impressive. Nice fluffy letters and all!.You can be professional and still be unqualified to grade cards! i'll bet those guys I can pass piles of restored cards through their hands and they will gladly certify them. There are only a handful of people qualified to be experts or "professional" card graders! What are the qualifications of these guys???

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Posted By: David

I was looking through a recent tuff stuff, and there was this full page ad for a new company's autograph authenticating and grading(?!?) services. They spent the whole ad talking about their space-age holders and ultra-modern numbering system-- but forgot to mention anything about their ability to authenticate and autograph.

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Posted By: runscott

...why don't you apply?

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no disclaimer - temporarily taking responsibility for my actions

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Posted By: Keith O'Leary

Personally, I think its too early to render a verdict on Grade Tech. In the meantime, I'm staying away and will continue to walk hand in hand with SGC for any vintage card dealings. In my opinion, nobody is more trustworthy, although like a previous post stated, no one is immune to mistakes, they just make far fewer.

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Posted By: B C Daniels

your in need of a cataloger of your cards bro. Besides, we both sit in front of the screen during lag hours of thre lazy day while these other guys work!!

can you send me their link?

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Posted By: John(z28jd)

.....but until i see improvement from them i will stay away from their cards. Thats not really saying much because theres very few companies that i would buy cards graded by them,over the internet.Any others i would have to see them in person first and would go by my own judgement and not theirs.
Not that i send in any cards but i would think just for resale value alone,especially for vintage cards i would use scg or psa first,scd or bvg second and wouldnt consider any others till they established themselves.grade-tech will have a tough task ahead of them and they didnt have a good start,especially with the vintage crowd

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Posted By: runscott

BCD - my dog does my cataloging and card-grading, and would pee on the carpet if I hired a replacement. Here's the link to a great employment opportunity: www.grade-tech.com

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Posted By: Bruce Moreland

Being honest is the easiest thing in the world. Having integrity is the easiest thing in the world.

To do these things, you just do what's right, and there is no problem.

Much harder is not being an idiot.

It's nice that this company came forward and admitted it messed up, but fact is that they graded a T-206 that was very weird looking, and they graded it wrong.

It is nice that they aren't crooks -- and a good deal of what is wrong with the card business is that people can't do these simple things.

The fact remains that they are still inept, so I find it hard to praise them. They have to have the skill to do the job, as well as honesty and integrity.

I don't think that many people could do this job correctly. I'm certainly not one of them, which is why I stick to post-war.

bruce

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Posted By: runscott

To me, telling a fake t206 from a reprint is extremely easy. There are a few very simple clues that are no-brainers. This one fails the easiest: does it LOOK fake? But once past that, the seller and authenticator should have noticed that the print was in black, not brown. Then there's the matter of no border around the picture, and, finally, if all fails, get out a 10x and compare to REAL commons.

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Posted By: David

Naturally there are going to be exceptions, but, in general, the older the print or photograph (or trading card), the easier it is to authenticate. This is because the older items were almost always made with obsolete processes and materials, and will have qualities that are nearing impossible to mimick in modern times.

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Posted By: Bruce Moreland

I guess my point is that if someone gave me a T214 and asked me if it was real, I'd have a hard time, because I don't own any. There are a zillion of these issues and they all have their eccentricities.

That T206 looked bad to me because it had about a mile of border all around. I'm surprised that nobody brought that up.

bruce

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Posted By: Dave Finnerty

Hey Brian, What are you doing with a "pile of restored cards". I know, you won them on e-bay not knowing they were restored or did you restore them yourself. Hmm. That's as bad as grading a reprint card. I guess you won't be applying for that job.

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Posted By: B C Daniels

I suspect you are " Me" though. Being as you have no clue what you are talking about. But for the record:

a) I can restore any card anytime and anywhere. if you do not deceive or profit from unsuspecting buyers, there is no issue with it once so ever. I have done it to see who IS and who IS not the alleged experts of grading. I fooled Joe Merkle when he founded SGC by getting 14 of 32 altered ,corrected and/or restored cards by his eagle eye and he is a well known expert!

And no, I have not purchased any reprint cards ( which has nothing to do with restoed cards ) However, I did win in a Festberg auction a restored card and sold it sight unseen to John Spencer who figured out my story was the truth wneh he received the card the day after the auction ended and I never had it long enough to even examine it never the less restore it and resell it. Festberg, the alleged expert and self acclaimed designer of the grading standards sold a Cobb,lousily restored and would not discuss it. My history is an open book PAL! Fights over information aside,not one person on this board or any other would tell you they were deceived in any way on any deal I have ever done with anyone at anytime and anywhere! So Hmmmmm,whoever you are,feel free to confront me through e-mail if you have a beef or go back to your assumptive bumbling elsewhere.Everytihng in life is not motivated by financial advantage and no I do not drive a AMG treated Merx either. Next?

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Posted By: runscott

There are, give or take a few, 524 cards in the t206 set, easily the most widely traded pre-wwI card set. This Mathewson reprint did not come from one of the other, less common sets that you refer to.

If someone plans to buy HOF t206s, or to get into the business of grading them, there is no excuse for not being able to tell a fake from a real one. If you can't, then you should either educate yourself on the issue (which would be simple with t206s), or stick to what you know best.

You can make excuses for these people all day, but the task they had was relatively simple compared to that of selling/grading most other issues.

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Posted By: Brian C Daniels

those guys would hire me in an instant to show them how to do their job! Having restored 4000 paintings i think they would be all ears and eyes! And being as SGC told me i did the best restoration work they have ever seen would go far for me as well...You like that? Thing is, I do not need the job! Maybe you should look on my feedback file! I AM NOT EVEN REGISTERED AS A SELLER*** I have only purchased cards thorigh my account....I do not sell !!!!

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Posted By: David

I agree with you, Scott. T206s are the 'Grading 101' of Pre-WWI cards, only in part because they are so plentiful. If you can't identify these cards, it's probably not a smart thing to start up a grading company, no matter how space-age your holders.

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Posted By: Lee Behrens

Obviously Grade Tech has a way to go in the vintage card department, but it looks like they are making an effort by asking if anyone is interested in there Vintage card expert.

As for the grading, they missed on grading that reprint pretty bad, so there grading looks suspect.

The response to the board was a breathe of fresh air, whether you liked there response or not, at least they are giving us there response instead of alot of spectulating, which goes on alot when we don't have a response from the person in question.

The magnification of the corners scares me, because from the looks of it even the highest grade cards even have problems under that magnification.

The one great positive I feel they have that seems to be overlooked is that you get an explanation of how and why your card was graded the way it was. I know everyone of us is looking for this out of our graded cards. NO other company has this feature, I wish they all had it.
It would be nice to be able to get a nice range of samples of vintage cards graded by them in varing grades to see how they do.

Just My Thoughts

Lee

By the way Leon you owe me $5 I got 25 photos on one roll and 26 on the roll we took at Wrigley.