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Posted By: barrysloate

We've all chimed in on this before but what I find most galling is the practice of resubmitting a card until it gets a higher grade. Keep in mind that if a 7 ultimately gets bumped to an 8 it can often make that card 3-4 times more valuable. That so much depends upon a whimsical change of heart by the grader really makes a mockery of the system. And while everyone says buy the card and not the slab- certainly sensible advice on the surface- if the grading were more consistent and accurate one could actually depend upon it to reflect what the card should look like. When coins were first being graded the idea was to create a market environment where they could trade sight unseen. Obviously, that is a far cry from what is actually transpiring in our hobby. I say cards should be submitted to test for tampering, trimming, etc., and the grading part should be learned by each collector. Before third party grading we all learned to grade our own cards, and I know the skeptics say that it gives unscrupulous dealers too much leeway. You know what? If one grades too loosely he will soon be out of business, as the market will no longer tolerate sloppiness.