Posted By:
Gilbert MainesI agree that grading companies and their efforts are not operating to the detriment of our hobby. Actually, the opposite is the case. Recognizing the power which they wield in the eyes of most collectors, it is important that their criteria reflects the view of collectors.
Although the foregoing is true, any change from the methods or guidelines currently in effect, would impact the perceived validity of all previously graded cards. Therefore, the collector is virtually powerless to effect any change.
Therefore, all one could hope for would be an alternate authority who would implement their own criteria for assessing a card’s condition. That is, yet another grading authority, which would employ different standards to card evaluation. A “collectors take more of a role in determining what the proper grade of a card is"
This potential is not unprecedented in the collecting field. And the establishment of a collector grading philosophy applied to a portion of the coin collecting community has met with tremendous success.
However, it is unclear exactly what card collectors want that they do not already have. For example, several have voiced a preference to change nothing. Lipset has indicated a divergence in opinion related to virtual pristine Old Judges being substantially downgraded due to manufacturing characteristics. I feel that too much weight is placed on some evaluation parameters, while insufficient is placed on others. And I am sure Barry, and others could identify specifics; if there was a possibility that such an effort would go somewhere.
In the coin hobby, the collector grading is not a profit generating entity. There are no slabs. There are published criteria and methods and prices and rarities and populations by grade and specimen.
Does anyone want their cards graded differently?