Joseph M Pankiewicz, you are a disgrace to this hobby!

[thehoodedcoder]

This is starting to look reeeeeeaaallllY bad.

kevin

[Peter_Spaeth]

Good detective work by the guys on this thread. Unfortunately, this is likely the very small tip of a very large iceberg.

[nsaddict]

http://tinyurl.com/ktskp86

Got this link from Joseph Pankiewicz Sportscards facebook page. If you click on the link you'll see Probstein is the seller and pank21 is the 3rd highest bidder. Those of you with facebook must be signed in to see his fb pages with info I believe. This thread has 100 views per response which is very high, will be interesting to see if anything comes from it.

[egbeachley]

I wonder what percentage of these upgrades are from cards purchased at shows with no scans to provide comparisons. I expect every major collector of graded cards has these alterations in their collection.

[D. Bergin]

I wonder what they are doing to clean up these cards like this?

I admit I thought the Worsley were completely different cards for awhile.

Are they blasting the stray print marks with UV or something?

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by egbeachley

I wonder what percentage of these upgrades are from cards purchased at shows with no scans to provide comparisons. I expect every major collector of graded cards has these alterations in their collection.

I have a great deal of admiration for the ethical people who alter cards and the ethical ebay sellers and auction houses who knowingly list them.

[MattyC]

I think the real onus here is on the company who gets paid to detect these alterations-- and fails to do their stated job. They also get paid to grade accurately and consistently, another thing it seems they struggle to get right.

Call me crazy, but an authentication company should be able to authenticate. A grading company should be able to grade.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by MattyC

I think the real onus here is on the company who gets paid to detect these alterations-- and fails to do their stated job. They also get paid to grade accurately and consistently, another thing it seems they struggle to get right.

Call me crazy, but an authentication company should be able to authenticate. A grading company should be able to grade.

For your $5 a card, you aren't getting an FBI crime lab, you are getting a quick glance. And these cards are being doctored by experts. It is not realistic to expect grading services to stop every altered card that comes their way.

[barrysloate]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

For your $5 a card, you aren't getting an FBI crime lab, you are getting a quick glance. And these cards are being doctored by experts. It is not realistic to expect grading services to stop every altered card that comes their way.

But it would be realistic to expect them to do a far better job than they are doing now. If they can't do it for five bucks, then charge ten bucks, or whatever it takes. But we should expect them to get it right.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by MattyC

I think the real onus here is on the company who gets paid to detect these alterations-- and fails to do their stated job. They also get paid to grade accurately and consistently, another thing it seems they struggle to get right.

Call me crazy, but an authentication company should be able to authenticate. A grading company should be able to grade.

I suppose it's depends on what's actually being done to the card. If an alteration is being done in a way that can't be detected, or leaves no evidence on the card itself, I'm at a loss to determine what can be done.

[MattyC]

Why should collectors expect them to get it right far more often than they do? Because they are a for-profit, publicly traded company advertised as "professional." Not advanced hobbyists, not just very experienced, but a professional who gets paid good money to get it right. That term means a lot to me, when someone brands themselves a professional. It elevates them to a level where a high success rate is expected. Those expectations should not be created if they cannot be met, in my humble opinion.

Now no human or company is absolutely perfect, and expecting zero mistakes or missteps is unrealistic I'll be first to admit-- but it is incumbent upon a professional grading and authentication service (or at least one that wants to last and be successful) to keep pace or stay ahead of the experts on the opposite end of the table, so to speak.