Quote:
Originally Posted by BobC
Just for the record, I am not against PSA, or any of the other TPGs, if that is what you were thinking. I am also not necessarily for them either. I am for the basic collectors in this hobby who want to enjoy and have fun with it. I'm not for or against the dealers or auction houses, and I'm even not necessarily for or against the card doctors either. There is even an acceptable time and place for the card doctors and I'm sure there are some collectors who actually appreciate what they do and desire their services. What I'm against is that apparently due to greed or other unknown reasons, some of these people get involved in using these techniques and services to alter/restore/conserve (whatever you want to call it) cards to sell to others who maybe do not have the same acceptance and desire for such altered cards and are unknowingly being sold such altered cards at inflated prices due to the non-disclosure of such alterations. I'm just for seeing people in the hobby not getting ripped off or taken advantage off in what they are looking for and expecting to get when they purchase something. As far as I'm concerned, if PSA wants to accept certain otherwise undetectable alterations as okay and leave them as graded so people can include them in their PSA Registry sets that way, that is totally fine with me. I just don't like the idea that someone who is more of a hobby purist and does not want altered/doctored cards in their collection, or doesn't mind having them as long as they know they have been altered and are appropriately graded and priced, gets taken advantage of when being sold an altered card that is not appropriately graded and marked as such. That is all part of the beauty and the bane of this hobby, that there are many different types of collectors with different needs, wants, desirabilities, expectations and standards. I just don't like seeing any one part of the collecting community possibly being taken advantage of because of the way other collectors look at things or find different things acceptable to them that others don't. As long as everyone has full disclosure concerning things they are buying, it is then up to each individual collector to determine what he/she thinks something is worth to them. I just think that if we had an independent, non-profit collecting group that oversaw the hobby and set consistent standards and expectations for everyone, it would help. Maybe not a perfect solution, but certainly couldn't be much worse that it is now when the for-profit companies and people involved in the hobby are pretty much in control of everything.
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Not wanting to get the least bit involved in the Joe Orlando Stock Sale speculation/discussion...
I think the vast majority of your last paragraph
(in bold) did indeed hit it out of the park. This is where the TPGs have failed us. I only take exception to the portion highlighted in Red. But for the most part, some very good perspective IMO.