Posted By:
leon Hey Folks,
I feel it is up to us to report good, bad, and indifferent issues. Let me first say that I know 2 of the gentleman at Beckett very well, trust them, and respect them. They are Wayne G. and Rich K.. I have nothing but good things to say about these gentleman. With that being said I am not so sure about the grading service their company offers for us Vintage card collectors. Recently ya'll will remember a certain Drum backed T206 Cobby on Ebay. It was being sold by a seller with a somewhat dubious history, to say the least. I was interested in the card and inquired to the President of Beckett, Mark Harwell, about guaranteeing the card in THEIR holder. He referred me to their senior grader, Mark Anderson. After a polite email with him, and a nice phone call, he basically told me that they will NOT offer/state any upfront recourse if the card turned out to be bad. I am fairly sure he was just the messenger on this issue. They stood by their line of "if we say it's good then it's good" and who would we choose to dispute them? ......and they really didn't leave any room for a mistake. I told them that this would be a golden opportunity for them to step up to the plate with their service and dispel any unfound rumors. They declined. When I called a major auction house and spoke to an expert about said card he said in effect "bad looking card, bad seller, bad grading company". Until my conversations with the head folks at Beckett I would have disagreed. One more caveat. Mark Harwell did have his secretary try to make an appointment to talk with me on the phone FOUR DAYS after the auction ended. I responded back immmediately (and this was 3 days before the auction closed) that this would defeat the purpose and would be moot at this later date. I never heard back. My conclusion.....as far as grading companies go, for vintage cards, stick to SGC..they aren't perfect but still the best grading company for what we collect.......again, that is only my opinion.....regards all....and here is what I was told in an email.........
Our policy at BGS/BVG is that, once a card is encapsulated in our holder, it is a legitimate and authentic card, and thus do not offer any type of recourse. BVG Senior Graders and other vintage experts could not find any evidence of tampering/re-backing at the time the card was graded, so our belief is that the card is authentic.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2745355915&category=31718