Posted By:
Scott LevyI own cards graded by PSA, SGC, and BVG as I suppose many people do. Prior to this post, I had viewed SGC and BVG to be consistently conservative, PSA a bit less so, but still very much in the same ballpark.
IMO the grades offered to the Demmitt and O'Hara are not consistent with industry established (perhaps not Beckett) guidelines. Specifically, any paper loss no matter how minor on the front or back of a card typically drops that card to a '2'. While I don't necessarily agree with this guideline, any card which I have owned, no matter how sharp, has suffered this fate. Therefore, the paper loss on the Demmitt, if we are following industry wide standards, should result in a similar grade.
My personal belief is that 4s should generally be crease free unless there is a single very minor crease. I know that I am more harsh than the industry standard on this one....so let's take the industry standard viewpoint. but most cards that are graded 4s by PSA, SGC and GAI have
PSA VG-EX 4: Very Good-Excellent. "...A light crease may be visible."
SGC 50/4 "Light hairline crease may show on one or both sides."
GAI 4 "Global VG-EX (4)"...a light crease"
This contrasts with the "3" grade in which it is explained that multiple or more significant creasing may be present.
So let's assume that both cards are untrimmed, seems to me that the Demmitt ought to grade a '2' (although it is a great example of one) and the O'Hara ought to grade a '3'