Question on Buttercream Ruth in REA

[jmk59]

Lot 6 Buttercream Ruth is graded as Auth. The lot description says that it is not evident why it got this grade - whatever it was that SGC saw had to be pretty subtle.

The Ruth was apparently submitted along with the 12 cards in Lot 7 because they had all come from the same find. Many of the cards in Lot 7 were much more clearly hand cut from a sheet (as opposed to trimmed).

So. Did the Ruth have a lesser chance of getting a numerical grade in its own right because it was sent in with a group of cards with clear indicia of hand-cut edges? Should it have gone in separately? Should the other 12 cards have been sent in after the Ruth was graded, or maybe even not until next auction?

On the other hand, a few cards in the larger lot did get numerical grades, which is a surprise to me.

I guess the question is whether a grader's judgment is affected by the other cards that came in as a group. Note that even if one grader does not get the whole group, it would be impossible that they all wouldn't be aware of a bunch of Buttercreams that came in with a Ruth even if the cards didn't all go to the same grader.

Anyone know how this works or have an opinion on not sending in a key card with a larger group that has visual problems?

Joann

[Leon]

My experience has been that grading companies will look at all of the facts surrounding a card, including what the circumstances of "how" it's being came about. On a few different occasions I have sent exemplar cards with cards to be graded. That wasn't the particular situation here as all came from the same find and the ones I have sent in, except for the Trucker Boy find, were only similar cards from the same series. I know I am a big proponent of all kinds of provenance and the more the merrier. The recent E100 printer scraps I acquired came from the same shoebox of 400 PCL cards, of which many of them got sold in REA last night. There were E100 type ones and type 2's and we just don't see too many collections like that. (at least not that I have seen in my limited time in the hobby). Had those printers scraps come from Ohio and were the only things being sold I would have been much more suspect. The short answer is I think the grading companies will take into account different circumstances but at the end of the day the card does have to stand on its own.