Posted By:
Dennis W.15 or so years ago the hobby changed permanantly and for the worse. The market was flooded with worthless cardboard and the dealers changed. They changed from friendly helpful guys/gals that enjoyed trading and chatting with their customers to guys/gals that became desperate for profitibility and a way to stay in business. Some are still as friendly as ever but are they in business for fun or for a living? When someone's living is in jeopardy some people make bad/dishonest decisions. That's the nature of business. Then the mighty Internet came into being. People were now buying cards from faceless dealers. The same dealers that they had already lost faith in. The need for a a third party "unbiased" evaluater became apparant. The ability to ultrasonically seal a card between 2 slabs of plastic evidently was the primary prerequisite for that need.
I think it's obvious that there are numerous folks on this board that are more qualified to grade pre-war cards than the graders. The graders know that and that's why they lurk this board so much. This board carries clout. Let's not screw that up.