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Posted By: Corey R. Shanus

It has been said that one should buy the card, not the holder. It has also been said that card grading is an evolving art. I agree with both of these statements. It seems to me that because the grade of a card should reflect the overall collector assessment of the card's condition, buying the card should equate to buying the holder. The fact that in my view it clearly doesn't in the case of 19th century photographic blank-backed cards suggests that the grading criteria needs some serious reevaluation.