Crossover grading

[benjulmag]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Nonresponsive. I never said there could not be a business tort here though I'm skeptical without some overt defamation. But you said there was an economic/antitrust difference between just refusing to cross and saying you would but not doing it, and you articulated that difference as the latter suggested A had an inferior product, so I am responding to that. If A is claiming it's hurt because B won't rebrand its product as B's product, what does that tell you about A's assessment of its own product, or the market's?

A should be critically examining itself and asking why people are trying switch its cards to B's holders, not making it painfully obvious that it has an inferior product by suing B.

I think B would welcome such a suit actually -- what great publicity to have high profile dealers/collectors explain why they wanted to get their cards out of A's holders and into B's.

Again, we are going to have to agree to disagree. If such a suit were brought and it should come out that B has an unstated company policy that it does not crossover from A, but that the explanation it is to give to the submitter is that the card possess defects B knows it does not possess, I'm not sure I share your view that such a suit would be beneficial to B. Such a suit could give A a forum to submit voluminous forensic evidence of grading errors by B, which could be an eye opener for a number of potential dealers/collectors. In the world we are in high-grade vintage cards routinely sell for five and six figures. Some potentially seven figures. And I suspect that a number of the purchasers would find it material if they were to learn that the cardboard within the slab is in fact not what the flip represents, and that if revealed would be worth a small fraction of what it sold for.

Edited to add that the antitrust implications I am trying to draw out pertain to a situation where B essentially has 100% market share. Are you saying that such a market concentration does not have antitrust implications?