[rickswaine]

Do any other the grading companies keep documentation of why they graded an individual card the way they did. And if not - Why not?

I submitted vintage cards for grading for the first time late last year taking advantage of PSA's introductory offer. I hate slabbed cards, but figured I'd better learn a little about the process if was going to start selling some of my collection.

When I got the cards back I was surprised that there was no explanation for the grades assigned. Some graded higher and some lower than I expected but I couldn't detect a pattern. I'd made the submission (a mix of pre-war and early Topps/Bowmans in the $200-$500 range) with the hope of getting a better idea of what type of grade to expect so I called PSA to get some feedback. I was amazed to find out that they don't keep any documentation as to why they assigned the grades they did. I just assumed they at least scanned them before grading and made some minimial notes so they could talk intelligently to their customers, but I was dead wrong. The PSA rep did agree to take another look at them and try to give me an idea of why they received the grade they did, so I shipped them back at my own expense.

The cards were returned a few weeks later and two of the six had been upgraded slightly and two others had yellow post-it-notes attached with notations of "wrinkle" and "corner." The other two were unchanged.

I'm getting ready to submit a few vintage pre-war cards to SCG. Should I expect anything different?