Grading stategies (T206, T209, T205, etc)??

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Posted By: Roberta

Hi. I’m new here and to baseball cards, and I hope some of you experts won’t mind giving me some advice regarding the grading of my cards—whether I’m doing things correctly now and how I should proceed going forward. I am dealing with my grandfather’s boyhood T & E card collections that we recently discovered in an outbuilding (used for storage) at my parents’ home (at least 790 cards):

T206470 cards
T205160 cards
T209-1 17 cards
T209-2111 cards
E90-1 2 cards
E91B 10 cards
E91C 9 cards
E95 7 cards

My grandfather was not a collector (so, no sentimental value there) and neither is anyone else in the family, so I will be selling them (although I have really enjoyed learning about these very interesting cards and have actually become quite attached!). So, for a variety of reasons, I made the decision to have the cards graded and took 760 of them out to PSA several weeks ago. So far, I’ve received 275 cards back, and I’m unhappy with only a few:

Evid of trimming:Well, none of these cards have been doctored in any way at any time. They have been in this cigar box ever since they were placed there—we guesstimate not long after they came out—1912-1915. I suspect that there may be a few where a child played with them (at that time) and perhaps cut upon them—but they are fairly obvious, and I did not submit them. The ones that PSA graded measure properly, look terrific and simply were given that designation in error—I suspect it’s that vague (to me, anyway) criteria of “feeling the edges” for “trimming.” At any rate, whatever they’re seeing or feeling is misinterpreted. I feel strongly about that. So far, we’re talking about 4 cards (3 T206s and 1 E95). (Also, I have received plenty of 7 grades and some 8s as well—these cards in question look at least as good, but the point is that the graders didn’t suspect “trimming” on those that were graded, and it’s proof that really good cards can and do exist in this collection.)

Miscut (not holdered): Does this mean that the card does not measure the right size, having been miscut at the factory—and that the MC qualifier means that the card is the right size, but has been cut so that the front and/or back are off? Why wouldn’t the card at least get an AUTH? And holdered?

MK qualifier: Given to 7 of the 8 209-1 Contentnea Colors—for the factory stamp on the back, which is obviously an ink stamp that was stamped on the card at some point prior to packaging. I did find one of Leon’s online (hi, Leon), which confirms to me that the stamp was not added after the package was opened. Does anyone else have one of these stamped cards that has been graded without the MK qualifier? If so, who graded it?

So, what do I do? I think that since I’m a complete unknown in the hobby, I do need to have these cards graded and authenticated to sell them.

I will probably be making a submission to SGC next for certain cards and wonder if I should submit these cards in question to them and forget the “review” thing at PSA which seems unlikely to produce positive results from what I’ve been reading on these boards.

If you think that’s a good idea, what about the very, very few cards whose grades just look way off to me. I do want those resubmitted, but again, should I just bag PSA on this and send them in to SGC as a crossover?

I really value your expert opinions—I’ve been going back and reading the boards and have learned a lot from you folks.

Thanks for any and all help!

Roberta

PS sorry if TMI