Effects of tighter grading

[Throttlesteer]

Not to beat the grading mule to death......but, with all the talk over positive centering qualifiers and tougher grading from newer PSA flips, I'm wondering how this is changing buying habits? Also, how does this further pollute the already questionable population reports from the big 3?

PSA's recent trend could shift the overall grading distribution to the left. Additionally, crossovers from SGC or BGS could further imbalance the historical distribution. I realize the pop reports are already a giant mess.

In the prewar space, PSA and SGC both used to be fairly equal when measuring grading characteristics for a particular grade. More recent opinions suggest SGC grades are roughly -1 from equivalent PSA new-flip grades. Is there a significant difference in price between old and new PSA flips? Depending on the card, it seems the price gap seems to be widening between SGC and PSA (even old flips).