Is it just me, or is there something fishy about this Cracker Jack Rube Marquard?

[The-Cardfather]

See eBay link below:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1915-Cracker...kAAOSwcL5XNklm

To me it appears that it should have graded much higher than a PSA 3.

And only $850.00 (even for a PSA 3)?

On the other hand..... The seller does have a 100% feedback score of 6468.

[btcarfagno]

Is there a bend in the card running the full length of it just past his left elbow and touching the end of the K in Jack?

Tom C

[Tripredacus]

I saw that bend immediately too.

[dtp717]

I'm thinking a PSA 3 Marquard should go for between $450-$550. The crease is a shame; a spectacular card otherwise.

[T206Collector]

This is a perfect example of why third-party grading is so important in the digital age. In 1987, the dealer lists that card as EX+ or NrMT. Then when you get it home under a closer look you see the crease... d'oh!

You don't need 3PG for cards where the flaw is obvious. 3PG is not there to tell you what you can already see -- or to evaluate "eye appeal" -- it's there to tell you there is something you maybe can't see.

I've said it time and time again -- grading is a pyramid. At the top, you have the 10s. 10 means perfection and thus all 10s will be identical. As you go down the pyramid, grades are set for a variety of reasons -- 9s almost all look the same, but 3s, 2s and 1s have a huge number of potential flaws, including paper loss on reverse, creasing, corner wear, etc. What makes a card an SGC 30 could be a variety of factors that tell you nothing about the eye appeal of the card without looking at it.

Professional grading is not designed to reflect eye appeal. It is designed to point out flaws, often hard to see or hidden, in a piece of card board. When you see a clean-looking SGC 30, you actually know there are a lot of hard to see flaws. When you see a badgered up SGC 30, what you see is what you get. But not all SGC 30s will look alike -- in fact, at that level of the "pyramid" you will have a lot of different looking cards.

This becomes problematic when sellers try to sell a PSA 2 for what a previous PSA 2 sold for. Without comparing both cards, going by the number alone gets you nowhere because what you don't know about the previous card is whether the damage was similar or whether the eye-appeal was comparable. Sometimes you can get a pretty good deal on a nice looking 2 when a seller is willing to use a previous ugly 2 as a comparable. This is why they say, "Buy the card, not the holder."