This is actually a pretty interesting topic, it makes me wonder a few things:
- How much do they pay graders?
- Is hobby experience a requirement or is it something that only enhances the resume?
- How do they assess (evaluate) a grader?
- Is there a "career path" (seriously, for retention)?
- What is the actual process for grading a card? I've heard that a card is passed to a few different graders for evaluation.
- Are they supposed to grade a certain number of cards in a predetermined amount of time?
The last question is something I'm really curious about. I'm sure that time is money to the grading companies so it benefits the grading companies to have as many cards graded as possible in an effor to maintain profitibility. This has a direct relationship to the value provided to the customer/consumer.
I've heard (must be an urban legend amongst hobby consumers) that a card is passed around to a few graders to determine the grade of a card. I find that hard to believe because if that's being done then I don't understand how paperloss and other defects get by the graders. I believe that it would be a good idea to pass a card to a few different graders without letting the other graders know the "grade/evaluation" assigned by the other graders. This would allow the grading company to determine if there was a large variance in the grade but that probably wouldn't be econimcally feasible.