Consistent grading

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Posted By: David Poses

I recently received some cards from SGC, which were the first cards I ever sent out for grading.

I'm a "raw" kind of guy, but I recognize that its helpful to have stuff graded when one is looking to sell or trade. I sent in 3 cards, each of which were cracked from one of the 3 big grading companies. None came back with as good a grade as they initially received. A PSA 5 went to SGC 30. GAI 3.5 went to SGC 20. PSA 4 went to SGC 20.

It occurs to me that, while its fine and good that the grading companies have grading guidelines, if they had a scan of every card they graded, in its slab, they could reference the scans when grading so as to ensure consistency.

Obviously it is impossible to be 100% consistent, but this could make a big dent.

I'm sure this idea has been talked about already, but figured maybe somebody from a grading company could provide some insight as to why this practice isn't in place, or if it is, how things are so inconsistent.

I am not bashing grading or any of the companies, and realize that I am opening a large can of worms, but I find myself having no choice but to embrace this- I am a realist. If grading must be part of the hobby, it seems to me that better policing of standards and consistency could be practiced.

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Posted By: T206Collector

...the concept, here you were not affected by inconsistent grading. SGC grades cards extremely consistently, in my opinion, and should not consider what grades were given by PSA or GAI. Indeed, even if you had not cracked them out, SGC would have given you the same grades -- if you hadn't indicated a minimum grade.

What would be more troubling would be if you submitted the same card over and over to SGC and got much or any deviation in grade.



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[Archive]

Posted By: David Poses

i wasn't necessarily suggesting that i was a victim of inconsistent grading- i have read nothing but great things about sgc- i'm just saying that it may be helpful in the grading process, to the graders, to have a reference point in front of them. a crease is a crease, but how much red ink needs to be scraped from the border of an otherwise sharp t210 to warrant a particular grade, etc. is a faint stamp of someone's name on the back of an otherwise ok card enough to call it "back damage" and grade a PSA 1? etc...

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Posted By: Jim VB

I think, for the most part, we have these things, inside of each company. What we don't have is consensus between different companies. That won't ever happen.

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Posted By: andrew

I have to say I am not impressed with SGC grading service.They are great people and answered every question. I had cards that were graded by SGC as 2's and cracked them out and they got re-graded as 4's by SGG. The other way I had a PSA 6 go down to a 4 SGC.The Only way is to get all the grading companies on the same page.It seems likes you are at the mercy of the grader not the company.I am not bashing any company just all. Thanks for taking the time to read this. Andrew

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Posted By: Brian Martin

It almost boils down to collector vs. investor. If the cards look nicer in a different slab, then I shouldn't worry about whether or not I lost money by crossing over?

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Posted By: T206Collector

<<I had cards that were graded by SGC as 2's and cracked them out and they got re-graded as 4's by SGG.>>

I'd love to see scans of these before and afters -- as would, I am sure, SGC.

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Posted By: Kyle

Whats the point of having the grading companies on the same page? How is that at all reflective of any sort of how to run a business?

Should Coke and Pepsi be on the same page?
Should B&L Auctions and MemoryLane be on the same page, and work the same way?

We're consumers of brand loyalty, dependability and satisfaction. I don't see how GAI being on the same page as PSA, and SGC as PSA, and GAI as SGC, blah blah... is going to do any good.

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Posted By: ali_lapoint

one huge gripe i have with grading companies is that they never tell you why a card received a certain grade. if there are creases all over the place then its understood in most cases. but i have some cards that received grades that i just don't understand. i wish there was some sort of report card that came along with your cards once they've been graded. it would really help people to understand their grades and really cut back on negative experiences if a person at least understood what the grader was seeing.

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Posted By: Jodi Birkholm

Not to take away from your point, which certainly has validity. Perhaps this could be done for an extra fee; it's really asking a lot for the various grading companies to do this at the $5-20 level.

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Posted By: DMcD

Jodi: Gesundheit !