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Posted By: warshawlaw

We all know that grading companies mess up and grade trimmed cards from time to time. We all know they mess up and grade cards cut from sheets from time to time. We all know that they occasionally grade outright fakes. We fight over these issues all the time. PSA, SGC, GAI, etc., make these mistakes after years of experience and presumably knowledge gained from ferreting out trimmed cards. So why is it so hard to believe that at the start of the grading era, the people at PSA were fooled by an expertly trimmed T206 Wagner brought to them by seemingly credible submitters at a time when they were looking to make a splash? So what it if it is an important and valuable card? They all make errors. PSA slabbed a fake Ruth rookie...And just to be fair and avoid straw man whining that I'm pickin on poor ol' PSA again, SGC slabbed an altered Doyle.

Moving away from the "is it trimmed-isn't it trimmed" question to the broader question, why is it so hard to believe that everyone with a direct stake in this card (PSA, the card's owners, the auctioneers, the cutter-downers, etc.) prefers to hype the card and do what it takes to establish a record price every time out of the box, that everyone who supposedly has the real story is reluctant to back it up with the alleged photos, and that there are many people who will ardently defend the "honor" of the PSA 8 Wagner even though they have not a shred of first-hand knowledge of the facts? There is much more at stake than just this card. To even acknowledge that there is a valid question about the PSA 8 Wagner could result in the collapse of the house of graded cards, taking lots of businesses and investments down the toilet with it. Lots of people have stakes, large and small, direct and indirect, in the continued good name of PSA, the PSA 8 Wagner and the graded card business in general. I am not suggesting the existence of a grand conspiracy of silence among the grading services and their customers to suppress the truth, but I am suggesting that people's views of the PSA 8 Wagner are colored by the baggage that they bring to the table, and that baggage includes their stakes in the continued good health of the graded card market.