[Archive]

Posted By: Rich Klein

Has a good shot, as this is post #199 unless someone beats me to the punch. OK, while I was typing this we got to 200.

A few observations:

1) Please keep political chatter out of this realm. There are plenty of good boards to argue politics on. Ann Coulter makes interesting reading and is IMHO very pretty. Beyond that I will not comment on her. Mike Moore makes interesting films, I think Sicko is going to turn to be a film discussed quite a bit and it is very topical as both the Republicans and Democrats agree that the American Health Care System is goofed up. They have differences in how to correct the system, but they all realize it needs to be fixed.

2) Everyone has some valid points in this morass

A) Jim is correct to the point where PSA first and then the other grading companies truly helped to keep the vintage hobby going. Especially in these days of less face to face communications (shows, stores) having grading companies that almost always get it correct -- I will never say always because it's still human beings -- gives a buyer a pretty good idea of what he has. If I'm looking to buy a NM 1962 Lou Brock card and I see it's a PSA 7 NQ, SGC 84, BVG 7, or GAI 7 -- I can build a pretty good mental image of that card. As a buyer or seller on the internet I'm far more comfortable with that then with some one else's NM condition.

B) Could the system be improved, of course, and I think we as a hobby and business could use a premium tier. If I have a card which books for some figure -- we'll create an $$ figure; it's worth a lot more to me to get that card graded than a 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr of which PSA has graded 50K plus by themselves. Get that higher tier grading structure, call in other experts if needed on obscure issues, etc.

C) Jim, however, has been called out, and in my opinion rightly so, for his refusal to have his own cards checked. While getting ALL of his cards rechecked is not worth it on many levels, it is worth it for those sets in which he feels uncomfortable to get them looked at. SGC, for example, is I would venture, less than an hour away from him, and in this case, perhaps a negotiated walk through deal either at his home or at the SGC offices might prove interesting. And while the two of them can work out their own rates, a limited test sample would be very interesting to see the resutls. No card would be broken out UNLESS Jim gave his approval to do so.

Regards
Rich