Posted By:
Al Crisafulli"Thanks largely to the grading services, "accurate" has become a term lost to this hobby."
With all due respect, I think this is an unbelievably unfair statement.
I will be the first to admit that some grading services could be better-versed in obscure issues, and there are occasional examples of what can be perceived as a lapse in ethics (or at least in quality control).
However, in my opinion, the true lack of accuracy in this hobby happened BEFORE third party grading. Doesn't anybody remember the unbelievable disparities between cards that were described as "MINT", or "NEAR MINT"? Doesn't anybody recall buying cards described as "mint" and getting a horribly off-centered card, or a card with rounded corners? I can't even count how many times I was told "for a 50-year-old card, that's in mint condition."
Grading companies, in my opinion, have been OUTSTANDING for the hobby, because they introduce an element of accountability and accuracy that was never there before. When I buy a raw card that's described as near mint, I never really know what I'm going to get. When it's described as PSA 7, or SGC 84, I have a reasonable idea of what to expect, and glaring inconsistencies are the exception, not the rule.
This doesn't even take into account the issue of authentication. I can identify an authentic 1938 Goudey from two yards away, but I wouldn't know how to spot a fake 1952 Mantle. What if I want to buy one for my Hall of Fame collection? You can bet I'll be buying it in a slab.
I've been reading this thread intently each day now. I find the commentary on the Wagner to be incredibly interesting, shedding the brightest light I've seen yet on an issue that we've all speculated about. The first-hand knowledge of that card presented in this thread is an incredible read. By contrast, the comments on the grading industry read more like sour grapes from someone with an axe to grind.
-Al