Is this Overgraded?

[perezfan]

Originally Posted by BobC

Scott,

Don't know the exact answer, but in an attempt to possibly try and provide a logical answer to your question, maybe because since card grading became a thing, the modern cards issued since then are all made using modern manufacturing techniques that create better overall card quality and appearance, while using possibly superior materials. Plus, most people/collectors now know and realize that a card's condition is what helps to create its value, so modern cards are typically not treated and handled at all in the same manner as cards were when I was a kid, and prior.

So now for the last 20-30 years or so you have the preponderance of cards being kept in as pristine condition and shape as possible, way different than cards made prior to that. TPGs are supposed to be grading ALL cards, regardless of when they were made, using the same consistent measures and standards though, right? So think about this. Earlier vintage and pre-war cards were never originally expected to become collectibles worth much of anything. So, they were usually well loved and handled mostly by kids, if not ultimate just tossed by Moms across the country as their kids grew up and moved out. The vast majority of those older cards are probably in what we'd consider today to be in the lower to maybe mid-grade range of conditions. But look at the more modern cards that collectors now expect to be worth something in the future. The vast majority of them aren't originally acquired and handled by kids anymore, they're mostly acquired and kept as nice as possible by adults, probably in what we'd consider in at least NM and higher grades.

So when the TPGS first got started, they used the grades to delineate between the most common types and conditions of cards out there that they were receiving for grading, which back then were mostly the vintage and older cards. There were so few perfect and pristine condition cards that they didn't worry about having to really grade those so the collecting public could say if one seemingly perfect card really was more perfect than the next. See, the grading of cards sort of started around the exact same time as what many may view as the start of the modern card era, where all the cards manufactured are almost always perfect and pristine. Nowadays though, the preponderance of cards being submitted to TPGs are all these modern, virtually perfect and pristine cards. But the TPGS can't just follow the old original grading standards they started out with and just give all these new cards 9s and 10s, based on and in line with their original, older grading standards. That doesn't allow for dealers and sellers to differentiate between the grades on all these "perfect" modern cards so they can ask even more money for those "special few" highest graded ones. Also, if the TPGs ended up just grading everything new as 9s and 10s, people would eventually realize that their services were kind of worthless, because every new card pulled from a pack today should be perfect from the start, so why bother going to a TPG to tell you what everyone already knew and/or thought then? The card companies have already perfected this scheme by creating their 1 of 1s and other manufactured card rarities. The grading scheme is to perpetuate the idea and extend that perception that there are only a very select few highest graded, perfect cards out there among the rest of the modern cards that aren't manufactured rarities, so now the dealers, AHs, TPGs, and others in the collecting industry can profit off collectors as well alongside the card manufacturers by having the prices of these so-deigned perfect cards rise exponentially above the value of the rest of the just mint condition cards, the balance of which most all modern cards seem to fall in, at least to me.

The result is that over the years the TPGs have had to change their focus on delineating between low to mid-grade cards to now delineating mostly between NM-M to Gem Mint perfect cards, as the preponderance of submissions has shifted from older to modern cards, and has caused them to maybe have to re-evaluate how they previously graded those lower grade cards. The proper thing to possibly have been done would have been to realize that there was a decided difference in thinking between older vintage/pre-war cards and collectors, and the new modern cards and collectors, and maybe actually have two distinct sets of grading standards and measures to account for the differences between the two. But that would have called for even more work and effort on the part of the TPGs, and possibly created a split or rift among older and new collectors, or even just confused the heck out of those people that collected both modern and vintage. I'm guessing that if any TPG had ever considered doing that for even a second, they also may have thought about how if the other TPGs didn't immediately follow suite, their decision could be taken badly by the collecting community, and they could lose business/customers as a result. So they just end up doing nothing in that regard.

These grading differences between older cards and collectors, and the more modern cards and their collectors, seem oddly akin to the differences in baseball itself in some ways, and how the game has changed and morphed over the years. Especially in the way baseball and its players are looked at, measured, and compared. The statisticians and numerical experts have all tried to put their measurement standards and techniques towards baseball and the comparison of players across time and eras by developing all these fancy advanced stats and such that everyone seems to quote and point to time and again when comparing players, much like how collectors point to TPG grades when comparing the condition of their cards. But when it comes to numbers, it is commonly known that these modern statistics also seem to carry a somewhat modern game bias, based more on how the game is played today, rather than how it was played say in pre-war times. This switch in the preponderance of cards (modern vs. old) being submitted to TPGs seems to have possibly created a similar type of bias against older vintage/pre-war cards as well. What may have looked like a really nice card to an older, vintage collector, may look more like a piece of junk to a modern card collector. And over time as the modern collectors enter and slowly take over the hobby, so do their thoughts and opinions. Food for thought, and a possible explanation on the seemingly changing grading standards and measures of vintage/pre-war cards. The TPGs, and their graders, are merely "going with the flow", and not a whole heck of a lot us older vintage collectors can really say or do about it, is there?

I was just going to say grading is random at best; corrupt at worst.