Compare the names

[steve B]

Originally Posted by the 'stache

According to SMR, the Magie error in a PSA 4 is valued at $22,500.

One would think that a $20k + card would warrant a close inspection, especially the name portion of the caption, which alone makes the card infinitely more valuable than the corrected version.

I'm sure that more than one person at PSA examined the card. And they both whiffed. How the hell is this friggin' possible? Are they there to provide an expert opinion as to the authenticity and condition of the cards that are sent to them? Or are they there just to make money?

The quote I referenced earlier from Matt's conversation with Joe Orlando is indicative of a significant problem at PSA that starts at the very top.

"They're just baseball cards."

These baseball cards represent substantial investments by the people that own them, and you have a responsibility to examine them properly.

The problem isn't necessarily the "it's just baseball cards" attitude. In fact that can be a good thing, if you want someone truly objective.
I've noticed that some cards that are "special" - Wagner, Magie, etc always seem to get a grade slightly better than it seems. That's always been true, perhaps less so with TPG than before. The Wagner I saw in person went from f-g, creases, writing, wear...Through 3-4 public sales about 6 months apart, gaining a grade each time the last ad had it as VG?

The other part of the problem is the backwards system all TPGs use. In other hobbies the cheap stuff gets approved right away, the better stuff takes longer, and sometimes needs to be accompanied by copies of research to get anything other than "we decline to offer an opinion" . The experts can usually make the call in under a minute when giving an item a first look, but will take longer when doing the actual examining.
So instead of making the turnaround 30 days on something like an 81 Topps common and a day or less for a Magie. It should be the other way around.

That being said, even with the other stuff mistakes happen, and new information constantly comes to light. Like a dealer with boxes full of great stuff - Too much stuff that's too nice- finally being caught with the device that made the great examples of rare cancels on stamps. A lot of his stuff passed authentication, then some discoveries were made and questions asked and eventually he was caught. A big problem, but everyone learned from it. The fakes are saved for study rather than being destroyed.
And sometimes the "fakes" are proven legit as new information is found and new techniques are used.

Reversing the time for the price tiers would probably go a long way towards fixing some problems. Then expensive stuff like Magies could get a more serious examination. With a one day turnaround, there's just not enough time. Given more time and access to a database of images a comparison like Chris did could be done for all expensive cards. And that would lead to fewer mistakes.

I have a decent collection of images of Magies, and the second fake which I didn't have an image of fooled me into supporting the second. Terrible methodology on my part. I should have considered the other fake suspect as well barring better proof. Too much trust that the exact same thing wouldn't slide past twice. That's why image collections and a variety of comparisons are important.

Steve B

Steve B