Posted By:
Mark C.I just started slabbing some old cards and got some pretty eye-popping surprises. Cards that I bought from some pretty big names in the vintage card business back in the '90's as Near Mint came back as VG (ink dot), Authentic (trimmed), and Authentic (retouched) respectively. I've bought several cards from all three of these dealers and I'm confident that these cards weren't misrepresented, but I agree with the previous posters about the changes in grading standards.
I've never really been the biggest fan of 3rd party grading, but I can't deny that it increases confidence in what you're buying. I've even started having some of the cards that I'm selling graded so that I don't have to worry about inadvertently misrepresenting them to prospective buyers.