Originally Posted by BobC
Great question, and now that you've asked/mentioned it, not sure. Never have heard of or seen a qualifier for sun damage before, though it is pretty well known what leaving a card out in direct sunlight over a period of time can, and will, do to it. Initially a "PD" qualifier popped into my head, but then quickly realized sun damage/fading has got nothing to do with a printing defect issue.
In thinking more about it, this does seem to point to a not often or ever widely discussed issue of how TPGs overall seem to ignore the effects of time and aging, and what it can do to a card and its presentation. The TPGs tend to stick to a strict technical grading of cards, ignoring aging and other natural issues. Makes a ton of sense from their standpoint though as if they do grade and encapsulate a card, they can't completely control how that card will fare once in that holder. Images and paper/cardboard can deteriorate over time, even if a card is encapsulated.
By a TPG ignoring such aging/fading issues in giving cards a technical grade, I can see it being a kind of a CYA move on their part. By not setting a precedent of grading cards like that, they don't unintentionally set themselves up for potential liability issues down the road if the image on an encapsulated card were to deteriorate over time, and the graded card's owner came back at the TPG on their supposed grading mistake guarantees. I know that TPGs rarely, if ever, seem to pay anyone for grading errors. But being proactive and not factoring in natural aging and deterioration in their grading standards and criteria seems a savvy move on their part to further reduce or protect against any such potential liability.
N172 Old Judge cards immediately come to mind as the poster children for such thinking. Very often you'll come across OJ cards where the image is so faded and blurred over time that you barely even see or make out the player and/or printing on the card at all. Yet it may still have a 3-4-5, or possibly even higher, technical grade. Meanwhile, another OJ with a sharp and beautiful image and printing gets a 1 or a 1.5 technical grade because there's glue residue, or some paper loss, on the OJ's blank back. I'll take those kind of 1's and 1.5's all day long.
Just another reaffirmation of the old saying, "Buy the card, and not the holder!"
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