The rest of the world (including Beckett's) uses scales that start at 1. There is only one clear, logical reason for Beckett's low-end service to come along and start at 5-- a shady business arrangement that enables deceptive sellers to inflate card values through a legitimate grading company that decided to lower it's standards for just this one special service.
A generation ago, this hobby had lots of newbie child and casual collectors that were largely driven away by the greedy overkill of manufacturer's and dealers. Rather than working to get back some of the lost revenue Beckett's short-sighted business model is to squeze the last drop of juice out of those that remain. As those Guiness guys used to say "brilliant."
As for all those complaining.......remove those collectors from todays hobby and all that would remain would be smug, sophisticates.
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