GM Cards, Even Some Of The Best Get It Wrong.
 

Here's a story I had on a recent GM cards eBay purchase.
I picked up a '52 Berk Ross Schoendienst for my collection under the notion of being NM. I could see what I thought was just a print dot and a slight oc to the card. But otherwise it looked great. Fast forward 4 days and the card arrives.
What I thought was a print dot is in hand very clearly a Pin hole. I paid a psa/sgc 7-8 price for this card. So I was Annoyed to say the very least.
I contacted GM and was given a 50% refund (I opted to keep the card). Probably still paid too much as I expect this is now a 2.5 possibly 3 at best.
I did not catch the exit hole on the back while looking at the eBay scans unfortunately.

PS: If you have a true NM copy and don't mind a downgrade I would be willing to trade+$



Even the best Aren't always right.

Lucas Dewease
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I had a similar experience with a 53 Bowman Color Dale Mitchell. It's a difficult card to find centered and during the Super Bowl, I placed the winning bid at a price that was well below what they'd go for. When I received the card it looked beautiful until I was putting it in a plastic sheet; the light caught a fairly significant indentation at the bottom left of the card. I contacted GM and asked for a credit of $10.00 towards the next purchase which was granted. However, on my next purchase, the discount wasn't applied, I'll try again, and hopefully, I'll receive it.

Phil aka Tere1071

we have a raw Schoendienst in EX (no pinhole, I promise!) and a PSA 8 in our auction that starts Wednesday. Tons of high grade Berk Ross.

I don’t think a pinhole can get higher than a 2.

Will definitely be checking it out!

Yea Now that I think about it this is probably true. I had a very nice looking '61 mantle with a pin hole and a very small wrinkle that was a 1.5. it was perfectly centered as well. Had the eye appeal of a 5 or 6.

Definitely got burned on this one..

Agreed; used to be an automatic PSA 1 Poor, but in recent years they have started giving 2 GOOD to cards with a pinhole with overall nice eye appeal.

Why not return it as Item Not As Described and get all your money back? It's not NR-MINT.

GM Cards, Even Some Of The Best Get It Wrong.
 

Decided on a 50% refund and keeping the card. It Has good eye appeal. And better color than most of the berk ross cards I’ve seen.
And simply because I was missing this card for my run.

Staple holes seem common on 1952 Berk Ross cards. I read they were distributed by two popcorn companies (and perhaps other manufacturers?), so maybe they were stapled to a box or a bag. They apparently were a bootleg issue, and there was a court case that shut down their production.

I still think it's a great card, regardless of the grade.

Chris,
It is absolutely still a beautiful card. Pin holes are my damage of choice. A card hanging from a kids wall is always my favorite thought.

Key man has a great article on them. Like most of his articles it is top tier.
Apparently they were in packs of gum as well, classic.

I did not know Berk Ross was the name of the actual photographer. And on top of that, Berk was believed to have been the official photographer for the 1948-1950 Bowman sets.

Article: http://keymancollectibles.com/photos...8%20and%201950.

Doesn't look like this was stapled, since there is only one hole and it looks like it has the outline indentation of a thumbtack.

It’s a tough job, but I have heard more complaints about GM this year than in past years. Are they overloaded with cards and forced to list quickly?

I don't think a pinhole can get higher than a '1'. But they always 'set the bar" as far as PSA 1 pricing though, because EVERYONE wants a '1' with a pinhole.

If you were annoyed you should have just done a return. To keep it and complain is your right though.
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SGC at least will go up to a 1.5 for 2 pinholes. I’ve seen multiple 2’s in both SGC and PSA with pinholes. Of course, that may be because they didn’t notice the pinholes…

Boy these berk ross cards have jumped in value omg .

There were a couple of PSA graded Topps Clemente or Mays cards listed a year back that were 7s with a pinhole in them. Never heard if PSA recalled them to fix or not.

I sold it to a board member about 7-8 years ago but it was a T205 PSA 4 with 4 pinholes. One per corner and more obvious than the OP's card. Maybe someone still has it and can post pics

The Berk Ross cards were sneered at for so long that I just can't believe the new price levels. I've had the same reaction to the current prices for all of the strip cards.