[barrysloate]

Originally Posted by drcy

I think PSA, PWCC and Moser should all go under. PSA can be the exception only if it can entirely reform and change.

I think the grading system/business is corrupt, and is, in big part, concerned, focused and invested in things other than, and counter to, objective grading and authentication. And if it is unable or uwilling to objectively grade and authenticate, then it shouldn't be in the business . . . And that statement doesn't even touch on if they are capable of grading and authenticating.

If they were intellectually honest they would say "We have to dissolve the PSA Registry, or at least attach a big fat disclaimer to it, because these numbers are obviously not reliable and almost certainly wrong." But honesty and accuracy clearly are not essential to their business model. If they were they would have admitted long ago that the T206 Gretzky Wagner is trimmed and misgraded long. Refusing to admit the Wagner is altered and misgraded is akin to a scientific "authority" refusing to admit the earth rotates around the sun and materials are made up of atoms and molecules ("And we should trust your statements on other scientific topics why?"). And that right there is the problem.

Whether they will, or 'should' as some collectors might say, reform and change is a separate matter. Many collectors and dealers are fine with the old corrupt, and perhaps inept, grading system and want it to continue, because they also are focused and invested things other than, and counter to, objective grading and authentication. Many are literally invested in the system.

Now if PSA wishes to wholesale reform their system and model, then that would be a reasonable response I could subscribe to and support. But that would require a wholesale reform and change in philosophy. To use Thomas Kuhn's once radical and now cliched and misused terminology, it would require a paradigm change.

A big +1

And David has a new ebook out on baseball card authentication. It's on my to-do list to read over the holiday weekend. Let me thank you in advance for your effort.