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Posted By: Kenny Cole

That is perhaps not an unusual state of affairs. Maybe Scott and I are drinking the same piss-poor beer. Nonetheless, to my way of thinking, the posts about this issue really raise some issues that as of yet remain unanswered, and they also seem to the posterchild for inconsistent statements. I don't know how to reconcile it all.

For example, I presume Adam was talking about one of my previous posts when he wrote:

Grading: I've been saying for a long time that a grader cannot be expected to pick up on a removal and that the services make mistakes. We all do. That's not the point. The real issues are whether the services add a value to the business and whether they stand behind their service. As to the former, I believe they do add value and are here to stay, and people who complain about the concept of grading per se need to face reality. As far as standing behind their services, I for one am glad to hear that SGC allegedly offered to stand behind its service. If that is true, it is heartening.

Wow. I agree that grading is probably here to stay, much as that entire concept makes me want to vomit. However, at least insofar as this thread is concerned, mistakes ARE the point. People send cards to be graded so that a mistake is not made. You just sued PSA's ass off for making a mistake, albeit one that was worse and more expensive. I was all in favor of that and was happy for both you and Dan that y'all won. And, as you are very well aware, that happened because PSA was negligent. Now you appear to have become a graded card apologist when it comes to a "mistake" made not by one, but by three, separate grading companies.

You and I are both plaintiff lawyers. If you had a client who thought they had cancer and therefore saw the top 3 oncologists in California, all of whom said that cancer wasn't present, I have to think that you'd look pretty hard at the failure to diagnose case if in fact your client had cancer (OK, maybe with that horrific MICRA law you wouldn't, but you get my drift). To some degree, that's analogous to what's going on here.

I understand that mistakes can be made. However, I don't understand how each of the "big 3" graders can look at a card which EVERYONE here assumes to be altered and miss them. What are the odds of that occurring? And, as I've mentioned before, isn't it the self-professed job of all those god-like card graders to tell you what you have? Isn't it somewhat telling about the people who the cards are being sent to that it wasn't caught on 3 seperate occasions?

When all is said and done, I'm not sure where everything stands. The one thing I do know is that the "everyone makes mistakes" position is a complete crock of sh** when it comes to card grading. If people are going to pay them for the service, they should damn sure do it right.

Off my soapbox now. Gotta get beer.