[Steve D]

Well, as I see it, there are two perspectives you have to consider:

1. Objective Grading

2. Subjective Grading

The TPGs have to grade "objectively"; meaning they grade on technical terms: Sharpness of corners, Cleanliness of edges, Centering, Surface wear.....things like that.

Then, there are the "subjective" aspects: Focus, Clarity of the picture, Crispness of colors....."eye appeal" factors.

There will always be disagreement on subjective matters. If you are Mr. Magoo, that out-of-focus 1948 Leaf might just be perfect for you, as your bad eye-sight counteracts the card's lack of focus. Similarly, if you are colorblind, you might not care about a card being off regarding a color or two. Also, if you are blessed with eyesight to rival Ted Williams, that faded, hard-to-see N172 Old Judge image might not seem so bad to you.

Concerning the difference between particular grades.....

A PSA 10 is considered "virtually" perfect (or "Gem Mint" condition), meaning it has no perceptible flaws. If there is even one "minor" perceptible flaw, it is not perfect; so you knock it down to a "9" (still "Mint" condition). If there's a second "minor", barely perceptable flaw, you wouldn't be wrong to knock it down to an "8.5". The lower you go in the grading scale, the wider the range of acceptable flaws gets. If you were to tighten the scale between the lower grades, you would greatly increase the size of the overall scale. One only has to look at coin collecting and comic book collecting to see that.

Coins are graded on a 1-70 scale, with single-number increments between 60 and 70. Below 60, the spread between grades is 5-10 numbers: i.e., 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 12, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 53, 55, 58, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70.

Comics are graded on a 1-10 scale, but there are 1-2/10th-point margins in the scale: i.e., 9.0, 9.2, 9.4, 9.6, 9.8, 9.9, 10. Below 9.0, you have 8.5, 8.0, 7.5, 7.0, 6.5, 6.0, 5.5, 5.0, 4.5, 4.0, 3.5, 3.0, 2.5, 2,0, 1.8, 1.5, 1.0, 0.5.

So, in coins, there are 28 different grade levels. Comics have 25 grade levels. Cards have 18 grade levels.

Do we really need more grade levels? There is already confusion regarding the grade levels we do have, and too many people who supposedly can't tell the difference between grades; do we really want to increase that confusion, "incompetence", and all the resulting heartburn and arguing? I say no.

Steve