[perezfan]

The most aggravating part is that if you look at cards they themselves graded 5-10 years ago, you'll see their criteria was vastly different. Yesterday's "5" is quite often inferior to today's "3". I've seen it hundreds of times with both SGC and PSA.

They've both moved the goalposts at least 2 full points over the past decade. And they punish severely for off-centering, but not at all for poor focus/registration. Both traits are original to the card, yet they only penalize for centering.... DUMB! To me, a blurry, dizzying image is far more detrimental to the card than its centering. A crisp image is central to the card's actual subject matter, whereas the centering is not.

Unfortunately there is no viable alternative, unless you take a chance with CGC. Their slabs are nice but the marketplace has not yet embraced them. IMHO, Collectors' monopolistic acquisition of SGC was the worst thing to happen to the hobby since the FBI decided to bow out of the Card Alteration scandal. Tons of altered cards still reside in PSA Numbered slabs. It all makes for a strong temptation to stick with just raw cards.