New here, have a few questions, please help.

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Posted By: Danny

Hi, I am an amatuer when it comes to vintage baseball cards. Anyway, a couple of months ago I purchased a Babe Ruth Goudey #144 from eBay. It was graded a 5 by CSA and was in a holder. I paid about $2,600 for it. It came from a very ruputable sports card seller on Ebay with terrific feedback. However, just recently, I'm learning that CSA is horrible for grading cards, and a lot of the time they mistake reproductions for the real thing. Anyway, now I'm concerned that this might be a fake, just because it was graded by CSA. Is there a way to tell if it's a fake without having regraded? Perhaps by looking for certain characteristics with a magnifying glass? My next question would be, if I were to have it regraded, who should I go with. Is Beckett a good grading service. I know PSA is the one that is best known, but they are expensive. Please let me know what you think, I would really appreciate your input. Thank you very much.

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Posted By: JimB

You can start by posting a scan here. Often times people here can tell just from a scan if it is fake. Sight unseen, my guess would be that it is more likely real, but trimmed. I would also recommend getting it graded by a reputable company, either PSA, SGC, or GAI. If you spent $2600 on the card, it is worth another$25-50 to make sure it is authentic and unaltered. If not, I would try to get my money back. Good luck with this.
JimB

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Posted By: cmoking

I have come owned 4 CSA cards, all Goudeys. I have cracked all of them and submitted them to PSA. 2 of them came back with an actual grade. 2 of them came back as trimmed. I don't know if this is a fair representation or not, but I would be scared of paying a high price for a card in a CSA holder.

If the dealer you bought it from is reputable, I would suggest possibly thinking about returning the card to him for a refund. That is, if you still feel uncomfortable that the card is legit after you do some more investigation. Hope all turns out well.

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Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

did the two that cross into psa come back at the same grade? Lower? higher?

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Posted By: cmoking

I vaguely remember:
CSA 6 (or was it 6.5? I forget) --> PSA 5
CSA 5 --> PSA 4

The grades were expected...I just wasn't sure if they were trimmed or not. The other two cards (that came back trimmed) looked like 7/8 cards...but I guess that was the whole purpose of the trim-job.

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Posted By: cmoking

I also had one card graded by FGS. I had never heard of them before, but the card looked legit. I got it cheap. It was graded FGS 6. I sent it to PSA, and it came back a PSA 6.

Anyone ever heard of FGS? I haven't seen another one of their holders since that one.

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Posted By: Anonymous

I purchased a shiny card off ebay a few years ago and it was graded by FGS as mint. The card was worth less than $10 but accurately graded.

Brian E.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

A number of sub-standard graders don't normally grade fakes, but are lax about trimming and grading, and potential buyers will wonder what's up with the card. It's smart for the collector to stick with PSA, SGC and GAI, but there are there are quite a few cards in other holders that are authentic (an authentic card can also be trimmed and badly graded). If some self-described high grade rookie card investor stocks up on GYX graded SI for Kids Juan LeBron Gem Mint 10s, the potential value issue likely has nothing to do with the authenticity of the cards and everything to do with the grade.

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Posted By: joe brennan

With CSA it really depends on the holder type. I sent 12 Jordan Star cards to CSA about 7 years ago and they were very strickly graded. I know they were all legit and un altered but was expecting better grades. (dont we all?) These are in the over sized Blue flips. I would tend to trust these, but would not want to venture into higher price cards with anyone else exept the big three unless it was a price I couldnt refuse and a guarrentee that if it came back altered I could get my money back. Joe

A scared man can't gamble and a jealous man can't work.

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Posted By: tbob

I wouldn't worry about any pre-war card CSA graded being authentic or not, it will be. The problem is that, like the E93 Bender that sold on ebay today, many of their pre-war cards are trimmed on the top border. I imagine if they weren't they would be in SGC, GAI or PSA holders.

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Posted By: Bruce Babcock

For what it's worth, I have had cards that CSA (7-8 years ago) rejected as altered in one way or another that PSA graded. I've also had cards graded by SGC that PSA rejected.