Posted By:
Eric BrehmI have always assumed that grading companies have to be somewhat conservative when dealing with crossovers, where they are examining a card that is in a holder, and can't be as carefully inspected as when it is out of the holder, raw. If they decide to crack a card out, and then find on closer inspection that they can't meet the specified minimum grade, or even assign any grade at all because they discover that the card has been altered, they are stuck. It seems they would have to have some level of certainty, when looking at the card in the holder, that the card is unaltered and going to meet at least the target grade, before proceeding with the crossover.
The idea that PSA summarily rejects, or intentionally downgrades, cards they receive for crossover, in order to plant the notion in collectors' minds that PSA is more skilled at authenticating and grading than their competitors, is certainly a possibility, but I have not ever seen any evidence of this. I don't know what fraction of their business comes from crossover submissions, but I would think that they would want to do a credible enough job to be able to sustain that business, and that would supercede any desire to engage in gamesmanship about who is the toughest grader.