[x2drich2000]

Originally Posted by CaramelMan

Talk about a conflict of interest....

The guy Steve is the head pack grader, but he sells the most wax in the country through his own store..

How can PSA allow this? I thought when they become a grader, they have to sell their entire collections (or not be an auction house) which he essentially is..

Never liked this set up and it seems like a MAJOR conflict of interest...

While this certainly can be a conflict of interest, I believe you really need to look at the specifics of Steve's involvement. I seriously doubt Steve would even consider giving up his business just to authentic packs for PSA. Also, I believe Steve does not actually grade the packs, rather he only states whether the pack is authentic/unaltered or bad. In addition, Steve is widely considered to be one of the most knowledgable people in the hobby regarding unopened material. Without Steve doing the authenticating, I doubt many would support PSA's grading of the packs and there would be even more questions on what is/is not good that has been graded. Steve has a huge following of collectors that belief him to have extremely high morals. Simply looking at the number of raw packs, that are easily sequenced like 86 fleer basketball, that people have reported pulling superstar from speaks to his integrity. This is not to say that Steve has not made mistakes, but I know I would trust his judgement over most other people without hesitation regardless of any possible conflict of interest.

For full disclosure, I don't have any graded packs in my collection and I don't think I have ever bought something from Steve.

DJ