[the 'stache]

I'm half asleep, so please bear with me, but I felt compelled to see where this discussion has gone in the last few hours.

Have we really gotten to the point where we can take the same card, submit it to PSA three times (without making a single alteration, or even a pencil mark erasure), and get three vastly different grades?

I understand no matter how stringent the guidelines are for grading at a given tpg, there's always going to be a human element. Mistakes are going to be made, especially considering the sheer volume of cards being handled and graded. But what does it say about the quality of PSA's service when three different individuals (hypothetically speaking), all of them well educated, and with thousands of hours of practical experience in their chosen field, could have such varied opinions on the same piece? PSA is supposed to be the industry leader. There's only so many variables involved in grading.

To use an analogy, when you have a prize fight, you'll have three different judges sitting ring side. A boxing match can go up to twelve rounds, three minutes each. Even with all that's going on, the judges at the end of the match will present their cards, and while there will be some variance in scores, they are usually pretty damned close.

There's no flurry of activity in grading a card. These graders are looking at one card. They will have magnification to see every detail. They'll have ideal lighting to view the card. So how could three so called "experts" have such wildly different opinions? How the hell would that possible? Do the graders not have sufficient time to examine the card as needed? I thought, too, that each card was viewed by multiple graders. If one grader is off in their opinion, wouldn't the second opinion normalize the skewed marks?

If I'm a grader, and somebody sends me a card that is going to sell for five figures, I'm going to take the time necessary to critique every element of the card accurately, knowing full well that the amount of money changing hands is directly tied to my efforts.

This is not right. It just isn't. This doesn't pass the smell test.