question about PSA grading

[northsidebaseball]

Thanks for reading this, I recently bought a 1964 Pete Rose PSA 6 graded card off ebay and I found its grade to be interesting. I am aware the grading companies are sometimes very inconsistent but I guess I am just looking for opinions from people here on the board who are more familiar with PSA's grading guidelines. The Rose card in question has absolutely pristine corners, a clean back and no creases/wrinkles. It is however slightly off center, appears somewhat out of focus kind of like motion blur(look at the "C" on pete's hat)?, and has a couple spots on the front of the card that appear to either be ink blotches or wax stains. Also compared to another Rose 1964 card I have the overall color appears to be a bit more dull. Is it common for cards from this set to have print defects and/or have the picture out of focus? Shouldn't this card be graded an 8 or 9 with qualifiers or is it common practice for PSA to simply ignore the qualifiers and downgrade the card? I should also note that overall, I am fairly happy with the card but am just curious. The auction link with pic is below, any help/opinions are appreciated


http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=STRK:MEWAX:IT

[vintagetoppsguy]

Originally Posted by northsidebaseball

Is it common for cards from this set to have print defects and/or have the picture out of focus? Shouldn't this card be graded an 8 or 9 with qualifiers or is it common practice for PSA to simply ignore the qualifiers and downgrade the card? I should also note that overall, I am fairly happy with the card but am just curious. The auction link with pic is below, any help/opinions are appreciated

It's not common for those cards to be out of focus, but as you can see with yours, it does happen. I think the card could have easily graded an 8 with a qualifier - PD (print defect) or OC (off center) - take your choice. My guess is that the submitter requested no qualifiers and that knocked it down a couple of grades to make up for the qualifier.

Nice card by the way and as long as you're happy with it, it doesn't matter what the slab says.

[northsidebaseball]

Thanks for the response David, I wasn't aware that you could request no qualifiers as I have never submitted a card on my own. Good to know. I did a little looking on ebay and found another 1964 card that has a very similar print defect along the side:

http://cgi.ebay.com/1964-Topps-182-S...item3360046804

thanks again for the help

[vintagetoppsguy]

Originally Posted by northsidebaseball

I wasn't aware that you could request no qualifiers as I have never submitted a card on my own. Good to know.

Yup, if you'll write "no qualifiers" at the top of the submission form, they will honor your request most of the time - but it usually knocks the grade down 1 or 2 points.