PSA Debacle - What to do for a Novice Collector?

[drcy]

I largely, and respectfully, disagree with John and Johnny's theories.

Do people who own and have large amounts of money and belong to the PSA registry want altered cards to be priced by the grade label? Of course. Will people involved in the current PSA system want things priced that way? I assume for many, yes.

Will future collectors, people who are obtaining rather than currently invested, consider value that way? I doubt it. Will a future buyer pay the same invest the same amount of money than he otherwise would have in a card he knows is likely altered because of the incorrect label? I doubt it.

I think valuations will shift and change for graded cards, especially high-grade cards, as knowledge spreads and as new buyers not invested in the old system enter.

Another practical and major problem for the PSA 'true believers' is that when cards come up for sale and shown to be altered, that has to be addressed-- possibly the auction stopped, the card in its holdered form being removed from the market, or, at least, the seller overtly saying that this card is altered, mislabelled and being sold as such. If the card is proven to be altered, PSA itself may insist the card be removed from the holder and the serial number removed from the database. The PSA registry card owner's ideology about "buy the label" will be irrelevant in that matter, and it will be out of his hand. The involvement of lawyers and the FBI in the PWCC sales have shown this.

In fact, I am sure some big PSA registry owners are currently thinking "How do I go about selling my collection, knowing that many cards will be shown to be altered?" I assume that some have already consulted lawyers.

As people say, science doesn't care about your feelings . . . And the law doesn't care about baseball card sentiments. PWCC's arguments of "it's okay, just ignore the conservation and focus on the label' already hasn't worked with the FBI.