[barrysloate]

Well that's something I do agree with- only the complaints get posted, and seldom the good news stories. Let me try to state my position a different way:

I'm going to start my own grading service called BGC (Barry's Grading Company) and I'm going to do things a little differently. Instead of assigning numerical grades, I'm just going to use NR MT, EX, VG-EX, VG, GD, FR, and PR as my grades. My belief is the numbers are not precise, they can be easily changed, so my assessments are really no less accurate than anyone else's. How do you think my company would do?

I can tell you right now: I'd be out of business before I got off the ground. That's because the hobby obsesses over these numbers, even if they are not as accurate as they hope to be. If I come up to the plate ten times and get three hits, I'm batting .300. No matter how many times you review it it will never be .290 and it will never be .310. That's a fact, and batting average is an objective science.

Grading is not. It's way too subjective to pretend that a specific number tells anything more than a ballpark story about what the card really looks like. My descriptive grades probably tell the same story. But the market would reject me from day one.

That's my point. I'm not against having a third party with some level of expertise examine a card and give a professional opinion, I'm just fed up with the silliness of these numbers. One guy has a set that averages 6.52, and the other guy has a 6.48. Can you tell me who has the better set? I wouldn't have a clue. Maybe the guy with the 6.48 really has the better set, and the other guy's is overgraded. Nobody knows for sure, as the numbers are meaningless.

What the numbers really do is keep the graders in business, and keep the resubmissions coming in at a brisk pace. The hobby would be alive and well without them.