Posted By:
JKEric,
I think you are correct about sgc - they are conservative and I think that the card's grade is most affected by the card's worst attribute rather than its best. For example, I believe sgc's scale states that a 30 can have a small amount of paperloss. A 40 does not mention paperloss at all. Therefore, anything with paperloss almost always ends up no better than a 30 (Ive seen a few exceptions, but not many) with sgc.
BGS/BVG is similar in this regard. Despite what one thinks of them as a legit grader of prewar cards, I know that they assign four subgrades for each card (ie corners, surface, edges and one other that I cant recall). Under their system, the assigned grade is not necessarily an average of the four subs. Under no circumstances will they award a grade higher than 1 grade above the lowest subgrade. So, for example, if a card rec'd three 9s and one 2, the card would likely grade a 3 and could not grade any higher(the three strong attributes raise the overall grade of the card, but no more than one grade level).