[jchcollins]

This is at least partially why "buy the card, not the grade..." is a thing. Earlier this summer I bought a '76 Nolan Ryan that was a PSA 8. When the card arrived, it had a noticeably faded or "washed out" appearance in comparison to other cards I have from the same set. I'm not sure if this was not evident in the scan before I purchased, or if I simply wasn't paying close enough attention.

Anyway, long story short - I sold the PSA 8 and replaced it with an SGC 5 of the same card for less than half the price. The 5 of course has much brighter color / improved eye appeal, even if the corners are worse & not perfectly sharp. Remember that in the final analysis, a number grade is based in most cases on pure technical aspects first over and above subjective eye appeal. Nice technical qualities often equate to improved eye appeal, but there are nuances that means this is not always the case. TPG's are notorious for doing things like killing the grade for minor corner wear, while ignoring coloring problems which in some cases present far worse.