Posted By:
E, DanielGrading reduces a card's condition to measurables that are mostly unambiguous.
A card either has a wrinkle, crease, paper loss, poor centering, etc.., or it doesn't.
Now you want grading to somehow reflect the extraordinary variation in peoples estimations of beauty? Or a really pretty card gets to offset a pull, rub or tear by how many grades? Or does a super super pretty card with perfect registration somehow overcome a neglible border at top? To who? And how many grades is everyone going to agree on?
That's insane and far better left to each collector's excrutiatingly personal impressions. Try and grade on beauty, and there is no grade at all that can be agreed on. Go down that road, and we'll end up with a previous poster's notice of descriptions such as 'Nice', and maybe stunning, pretty, desultory and others!
I love grading, love slabs, love a third party's opinion outside of the seller's less-than-unbiased estimation. But every card in my collection has to be one I love, and I've lost count of the times I've 'downgraded' a card to a lower number slab example because I enjoyed it visually more. Doesn't mean I think it's worth the same equivalency in dollars and cents than a higher graded card - or that it should grade the same, merely that it 'fits' my collection better.
But mostly, I love being able to look at a card and decide for myself what it's worth, framed or nude.
Why are people so hung up on grading? So there's some variation - big deal? How much do you think people would agree on this site on a card's condition and value, and how many disputes would fill the page asking for a group opinion and resolution of descriptions based on aesthetics overcoming structural definitions?
Seriously, buy what you like for a price you can manage and just get on with enjoying the cards themselves.
Daniel