SGC & PSA Grades: Actual vs Expected

[Dead-Ball-Hitter]

In my line of work, we often take a retrospective look back at our actual financial results against what was expected or predicted. I've recently taken a similar approach to grading results; that is, determining the delta between the grade I expected to receive vs. the actual grade given, in this case, by SGC. Perhaps you do something similar?

Certainly the results show the subjectivity in grades assigned, but overall, I would hope things would net to zero, that is, I'd win some and lose some, roughly the same amount in each case. To summarize the process, add up the grades as values that you expected to receive and then add up the grades as values that you actually received. Compare the two totals.

Example: send in three cards, you expect a mint-9, a nm-7, and a gd plus-2.5. You expect a TOTAL of 18.5 in grade points. If you get back 18.5 points or more, even if the actual grades are different by item, you are pretty happy. If your results are nm-mt-8, exmt+6.5 and vgx-4 you are generally happy because, although the grades expected were lower on two of three, the last "made up for it" and you got back 18.5 total points still. Obviously, this still leaves room for disappointment on individual items.

Do you view grading this way? FYI over my last several years' submissions to SGC I expected 1,134 points on 227 cards and got 1,128 or 99.5%. I can live with that even though my returned grades were different 36% of the time. I would like a better hit rate (64%) on the number of cards I got right, but I can live with the total points given. Make sense? Other approaches to grading results?

Here's a card I was pleasantly surprised with...(expected a 1.5 due to heavy crease)