PSA politics
 

Posted By: <b>Jeff</b><p>Couldn't help but notice last night on the ebay live auction a Lajoie T206, PSA 7, was being auctioned by the PSA parent company and, even though it was off center, it didn't have a qualifier on it. Curious, because I have a PSA 8 (OC) Lajoie from the same set -- with the same exact offcentering. I wonder if they were selling my card instead of their own if I would have gotten a qualifier. My question is: having never submitted to PSA before, can you influence them in order to get higher grades; i.e., by submitting an entire set instead of just one card? Do they favor larger customers as such?

PSA politics
 

Posted By: <b>Chris</b><p>While I am not a heavy submitter of cards to PSA, it just seems to me that there does exist an inherent conflict of interest in terms of favoring larger collectors' submissions. While I don't claim to know all the revenue soucres for PSA's parent company, but grading submissions must be a large source of revenues. As such, it would appear it would be in PSA's benefit to ensure large collectors submitting cards to 'receive' higher grades. I have no evidence to support this, but one 'could' see this dynamic happen.<BR>Just my two cents. . .

PSA politics
 

Posted By: <b>Anonymous</b><p>Your card is a grade higher with the qualifier - many people ask for cards to be graded without a qualifier (at the highest grade possible w/o qualifier). You could ask PSA to review your card and see if they could grade it PSA 7 w/o qualifiers.+

PSA politics
 

Posted By: <b>murcerfan</b><p>perhaps the centering of the backs was at issue as well, how did they compare ?

PSA politics
 

Posted By: <b>Brian H.</b><p>My belief (and I am hardly alone in this) is that over the years the grading standards at PSA (as well as SGC) have changed. Generally, the changes have amounted to stricter grading. I might also note that the actual graders -- even the "head graders" entrusted with evaluating vintage cards -- have changed as well.

PSA politics
 

Posted By: <b>Jeff</b><p>Regardless, can PSA be influenced by those who submit hundreds of cards at a time?