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Posted By: Rob

Barry,
I agree with what you state above would be best for the hobby. But IMO the grading companies aren't in it for the good of the hobby - they're in business for the almighty dollar bill. Handing out low grades and getting resubmissions in effect gets them twice the money for grading the same card.

For buying online, sometimes a grade helps. There could be a hairline crease that makes an otherwise NRMT card become a VG-EX card. I'm sure we've all paid NRMT prices for a raw card only to receive it in the mail and its got a teeny tiny surface crease/wrinkle that didn't show up in the scan.

But for the most part, I agree. I just want a service that will authenticate a card. I can grade it myself.

Now, would this authentication service be cheaper than the full-out grading service? If a company charges $15 to grade a card, would authentication be, say, $10? Would authentication tell you a card is trimmed or has paper loss or recoloring? Or just that the card is a real card?

Rob