Posted By:
warshawlawI make no bones about my dislike for PSA. I find their service to be crappy, their holders sub-standard and their business practices abhorrent. Be that as it may, i have to disagree with those who assert that PSA is biggest because it is best. The group here is an unusually perceptive and intelligent bunch, which is why the relative merits of the various services are debated time ande again and why the net result is that PSA comes up short on many, or even most, posters' lists of services.
The ugly fact is that people ARE sheep. Most are too lazy, greedy and short-sighted to understand what to do when a decision requiring even the slightest exercise of intelligence comes their way and are too lazy to bother to protect themselves. Examples abound. I see potential clients all the time carrying a credit card balance and having cash in a savings account, or running up staggering credit card debts for consumer luxuries that they cannot possibly repay short of a lotto hit. Visit Las Vegas and listen to the idiots stacked three deep at the roulette and craps tables spouting nonsense about systems or numbers being "due" on games where each spin of tbe ball or roll of the dice carries the same mathematical odds as any other. Or following asinine myths about hot slot machines and overdue jackpots. I see people of modest means all the time sued for non-payment of their basic necessities or in danger of eviction who walk into my office with elaborate manicures, hairstyles and the latest and most expensive cell phones and PDAs that I would be hard-pressed to afford. Most people have no understanding of the taxes they pay. Homeowners in condo associations time and again voice their total ignorance of the fact that they own the place and have to maintain it; I have heard time and again impassioned speeches at homeowners association meetings from people not wanting a special assessment to fix catastrophic damage to the complex because "the association" or "the corporation" should pay it. Every car dealership in California has a big sign posted in the showroom and in every sales office that says there is no cancellation or cooling off period on car deals, as does every contract for sale or lease, yet I get 2-3 calls a month from buffoons looking to get out of their car deals and professing complete ignorance of these warnings. The number of people who come to me having signed contracts without even trying to read them is staggering; I see people do it all the time. Home purchasers time and again present me with signed statements to the effect that they have read and understood a disclosure when they never even bothered to read it. Loan officers tell me that I am the only person they have ever seen actually read mortgage documentation. People sign whatever crap is thrown in front of them at a medical office without a question. I was appalled that the standard contract presented to me at the hospital when I recently had some surgery called for me to pay whatever the hospital felt like charging me if my insurance declined coverage. I hand prospective clients a retainer agreement and ask them to look it over; half the time they sign it unread and I then have to spend half an hour reading them the terms and explaining them so I feel good about the transaction. I did this just yesterday with a doctor who flat out refused to read the agreement he was signing. I see homeowners who have been raped by their contractors who never bothered to check whether their contractors were licensed, had records, or even to sign a contract, when hundreds of thousands of dollars are at stake. A corporate client called me yesterday to tell me that he had ignored my multiple letters and calls to the effect that he needed to sign his registration paperwork and gee, can he now get out of the penalties, interest and fees he faces. Manufacturers rebates are typically used by less than 10% of the purchasers, despite the fact that they are effectively throwing away the money by letting the rebates lapse. All this occurs without the added pressure of the vast BS machinery of advertising and public relations. Half the people in this country believe that Saddam Hussein had a role in 9/11 when the 9/11 commission itself said otherwise. And people here still argue that the average person looking to have cards slabbed makes an intelligent choice to go with PSA over another service based on a careful analysis of the relative merits of the services? Not even close to the truth. Advertising and inertia win out most of the time. PSA enjoyed a virtual monopoly for quite some time. which gave them an insurmountable lead in terms of total cards graded and PR and advertising. All props to the marketers behind PSA who came up with and successfully executed the idea first. But please don't argue that PSA is the biggest so it must be the best, as there is simply no objective evidence to establish that is the case.