Future of card grading?

[steve B]

Originally Posted by Section103

I can see technology turning grading on it's ear but I don't see grading going away. I think the interest would be there for highly technical reports detailing surface blemishes, card measurements, print anomalies and such.

I also think there's room for a more premium service that details the reasons for the grade. It would be more expensive of course, but I don't see that as a bad thing.

The stuff I think will happen

Someone will offer or simply start doing high resolution scans of each card.
And they'll make them accessible just like the population reports. Perhaps with a fee for full high res, and free thumbnails.
Holders will become more tamper resistant.

Stuff I think might happen.
Someone will build a registry that's company independent. So someone with a mixed set, including SGC, PSA, Beckett, and maybe GAI and a couple other companies as well as ungraded cards could use the registry for stuff besides competition. Of course there would be weighting skewed towards their own brand and a bit by reputation. So for instance if it was done by SGC they could give a small bonus weighting to SGC cards, no bonus for PSA or Beckett, and a small penalty for GAI (I'm less familiar with the others)

Holders will be more customizable. For instance PSA could offer holders with some sort of insert making the look more like SGC, and SGC could offer At least one different color insert. (Like a light color insert for sets like 71 Topps and 1950 Drakes.) Or one with no insert making the look more like PSA.
That would work well, for some reason to me modern cards look a bit better in the all clear holder.

For T206 most companies will start tracking backs in more detail.

Stuff that should happen, but isn't likely.

The price structure will stay the same, but the turnaround time will change. It's fine to spend under a minute on for example a 1980's common, and doing that when you get around to it. But being in a bigger hurry on more expensive cards is just backwards.
That would be more like some of the other hobbies.
It will probably never happen. There may be insurance issues with keeping expensive items longer, and people have come to expect their stuff back as quickly as possible.
Stamps through the philatelic foundation are supposedly running 5-6 weeks no matter what the item is. They do offer a rush service for a reasonable extra charge, but it's not like the walkthrough sort of thing. More like an extra $20 to make the standard turnaround 15 days instead of 30-35.
Their process is also more extensive http://www.philatelicfoundation.org/...s/the-process/

Technology may change some of the technical aspects like measuring size or centering, but I don't think it will completely take over.

Steve B