Time to vent...
EDITED TO ADD: This thread erroneously started with five cards, but it should've only been four. If there are any references to a Pete Rose card, please ignore them.
I had four relatively major cards with smallish stains on their glossy fronts, and decided it was a good move to break them out, remove the gum/wax deposits and send them back in to PSA through the 'Swinging Sixties' group sub way back when (the '68 Mays was actually sent in through a different sub of Bobby's).
To be clear, there was no damage committed during or after the breakouts. My method for gum/wax stain removal is slow and methodical, and there were zero issues with it.
So, take a look at these ridiculous results. Out of the four cards, only the 1969 Bench received the same grade it was deemed to have to begin with, and a whopping three out of four (75 frickin' percent) actually received a one point
DROP in number grade!! Where in heck is the consistency?? Nothing changed except the meaningless removal of a thin, small area of gum/wax residue, yet the assessment of their grade was lowered?? Huh?? And even under the new 'no qualifiers given' approach of PSA, the centering on all four cards is fine and wouldn't merit a reduction in grade. Pathetic.
SMH.
Stainresultsbeforecorrect.jpg
Stainresultsaftercorrect.jpg
Afterthought: some people will say who cares? Even at a lower grade, they are still probably worth a little more than what you paid for them originally, but that just misses the overall point. These cards SHOULD HAVE come back with their original grades minus the 'ST.' That's the grade these cards were worthy of, said the company who graded them originally...which is the exact same company who graded them now!!