Former PSA employee AMA on reddit

[Snowman]

Originally Posted by Rhotchkiss

Its noteworthy that the guy states that every card is reviewed by at least two graders (maybe more if "contentious"). So that means that two graders authenticated this 1914 CJ reprint, the T206 EPDG Cy Young Reprint that was discussed here a few months back (dont have pic), and so many altered cards that BODA finds?

The graders are human. They make mistakes. For every one of these that slips through the cracks, they probably correctly reject 5,000+, but you never see the rejections, you only see the ones that slip through the cracks.

As far as BODA's "altered" cards goes... some of their posts are just getting ridiculous now. It's starting to become like the boy who cried wolf over there. I've lost count of how many cards they post where they say something along the lines of "I couldn't prove any alterations on this one, but posting anyhow for reference" or "I haven't identified the alteration on this, but I suspect there is one because 'a***a' submitted it". Meanwhile, there are 20,000+ "a***a" buyers on eBay, not to mention eBay assigns the same account DIFFERENT hidden ID's on every transaction lol. If you look at cards I've bought, my hidden ID tag is different on all of them. It's no wonder the FBI shrugged their shoulders after being presented with the evidence. Don't get me wrong, they've also found a ton of truly altered cards too, but the vast majority of those almost certainly couldn't be detected without a before (AND AFTER) scan of the same card side by side. Not to mention the hobby can't even agree on what counts as an "alteration" to begin with. And even if they could, that still wouldn't make it a crime to clean a card just because a group of ultra-purist collectors disapprove of it. These guys can sit there and dig up a million of these cards and it wouldn't change a thing. If anything, they're drawing MORE attention to what can be done to a card and what can't be detected. I would wager good money that the aftermath of BODA's efforts will actually result in MORE altered cards being graded than before. The FBI clearly doesn't care and neither does the hobby. If you think the next time that Honus Wagner PSA 8 trades hands that it's going to go for anything other than a new record because everyone knows it's trimmed, you're only kidding yourself. And the 1952 Mantle that started the whole BODA "investigation" thread? I'd take that card any day and would be more than happy to pay top dollar for it.