SGC DiMaggios
 

Alright, so I was looking at some past sales of the World Wide Gum DiMaggio, and I came across these two cards:

https://sports.ha.com/itm/baseball/1...umbnail-071515

https://sports.ha.com/itm/baseball/1...umbnail-071515

One is graded SGC 5 and the other SGC 7. Now here are the backs:

SGC 5
https://dyn1.heritagestatic.com/lf?s...oduct.chain%5D

SGC 7
https://dyn1.heritagestatic.com/lf?s...oduct.chain%5D

If you blow the back scans up, it appears that somebody glued the edges and put them into a scrapbook.

Here is a closer shot of the SGC 7:
https://dyn1.heritagestatic.com/lf?s...oduct.chain%5D

If you look at the top-right corner, you can even see what appears to be minor paper-loss.

I'm just very surprised that SGC gave these two cards such high grades. If I had been the grader, I would have given them PR to GD.

Your thoughts?

My thoughts are that this has become so commonplace that nothing surprises me. And I agree with your assessment on what their grades should be assuming this is glue residue or glue stains. I doubt if the average collector submitted those they would get the same grades.

It's crazy that someone was dumb enough to spend $49,200 USD on the SGC 7. Did he not look at the back?

Here are some examples with clean backs:

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/Iu4AA...TKQ/s-l500.jpg

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/R9QAA...I3/s-l1600.jpg

We recently saw a PSA 5 N162 Anson with what appeared to be significant paper loss on the back. Maybe there is a trend wherein nobody cares any more?

Probably not. It was most likely bought strictly for a registry set with no regards given to how the card looks. A large segment of this hobby values the opinions of others over their own. Crazy world we live in.

On a related note...are those possibly gum stains? I'm not familiar with the issue or distribution.

There are lots of collectors who just want the card and disregard all else. That is their choice but the thing that does not sit right with me are these are 2 more examples of cards which appear to have had preferential grading treatment.

It happens so much and we all accept it. We need a head in the sand emoji.