Why I Hate the Whole Card Grading Thing...

[brewing]

Grading has its pros and cons.
Majority of the time a graded card provides a valid condition level when buying and selling on eBay. Graded cards also provide a level of protection.

[Mesquite]

It's strange that someone hasn't come out with a computerized digital pattern/texture recognition based system that would give the same grade to the same card every time, and charge a flat rate for grading regardless of value. Technology certainly exists to do that, but maybe the development costs are more than the business model could recover. The number of cards such a system could grade per day would be way beyond human graders so it might make it up in volume, especially if everyone abandoned human graders.

[savedfrommyspokes]

Could be that this card is an "8" when compared to other copies of this card? With the 72 set being one of my favorites and with having gone through 10s of 1000s of 72s to build multiple sets, I know that this 518 card is tough to find centered. Despite the tilt cut, this example is remarkably centered when compared to other copies of this card.

[KCRfan1]

Originally Posted by savedfrommyspokes

Could be that this card is an "8" when compared to other copies of this card? With the 72 set being one of my favorites and with having gone through 10s of 1000s of 72s to build multiple sets, I know that this 518 card is tough to find centered. Despite the tilt cut, this example is remarkably centered when compared to other copies of this card.

I don't believe it really matters that this card is difficult to find centered. The grade of an 8 is what it is. I would think that most of us hold an " 8 " to a higher standard than what is described below though, I know I do.

NM-MT 8: Near Mint-Mint
A PSA NM-MT 8 is a super high-end card that appears Mint 9 at first glance, but upon closer inspection, the card can exhibit the following: a very slight wax stain on reverse, slightest fraying at one or two corners, a minor printing imperfection, and/or slightly off-white borders. Centering must be approximately 65/35 to 70/30 or better on the front and 90/10 or better on the reverse.

[savedfrommyspokes]

Originally Posted by KCRfan1

I don't believe it really matters that this card is difficult to find centered. The grade of an 8 is what it is. I would think that most of us hold an " 8 " to a higher standard than what is described below though, I know I do.

NM-MT 8: Near Mint-Mint
A PSA NM-MT 8 is a super high-end card that appears Mint 9 at first glance, but upon closer inspection, the card can exhibit the following: a very slight wax stain on reverse, slightest fraying at one or two corners, a minor printing imperfection, and/or slightly off-white borders. Centering must be approximately 65/35 to 70/30 or better on the front and 90/10 or better on the reverse.

Having built the 72 set graded(as well as several other sets) there is obviously quite a bit of subjectivity within the grading, as in this case to award this card an "8" with the tilt cut. While not the norm in my experience, this card still appears to meet the qualifications for an 8 centering wise, as PSA's requirements do not mention tilt cutting as an imperfection that counts against this grade level.

http://www.psacard.com/psasetregistr...et.aspx?s=3092

While the scan makes it tough for me to tell the condition of the corners, a grader applied their "subjective" opinion to the card in regards to the corners and awarded the card an "8".

This card has always been a low pop card (currently only 54 8s and 15 higher) likely due to how tough this card is to find centered. Seems like the fact that this specific example is much more reasonably centered than most copies of this card helped it subjectively grade an 8. In other words, because this card is a challenge to find well centered, did someone allow more room on this 8 than other 8's and have their opinion swayed because of the low pop? Likely so, IMO.

In the past with the graded sets that I built (and still have them), my enjoyment of the sets came from the challenge of building them cost effectively, as this set 72 Topps fully graded maybe offered once or twice a year. Whenever buying a graded card though, I still bought the card and not the grade. When building my 72 set I still would have considered this card, but at a much lower price than a more nicely centered example.


As a collector I much prefer building ungraded sets(as long as they are a challenge to complete). As I move back and work on older sets, hardly any of my cards are graded for this reason.


Why would someone grade a 72 518 card? Because if a collector would like to complete the challenge of building a 72 graded set, this is a tough card to find as many are located in other collector's sets already.

[KCRfan1]

Thanks for the insight on the '72 set. Presently, I am slowly working on a '69 and '73 set, so when it comes time to hit the '72 set this will be a card that I will have stashed in the back of my mind. I always learn something new on this site!

[begsu1013]

I understand your frustrations. I have the same from the opposite side of the fence...I cant stand when raw dealers expect psa pricing on a raw card and use wording such as "possible psa 9".

"you want $10K for that card because you think it would grade a psa 9? sure thing. i'm gonna pass on the card, but would love to grab some of what you're smoking"

[1952boyntoncollector]

Originally Posted by savedfrommyspokes

Could be that this card is an "8" when compared to other copies of this card? With the 72 set being one of my favorites and with having gone through 10s of 1000s of 72s to build multiple sets, I know that this 518 card is tough to find centered. Despite the tilt cut, this example is remarkably centered when compared to other copies of this card.

good point...also funny that graded cards really saved the hobby....yes all these 70s sets are in the hundreds ungraded and the thousands when graded mint ..that's thousands that are needed to set up shows, to set up advertising etc...the hobby cant live off 200 bucks for a 1974 set for example....costs to keep the lights on etc are the same no matter what you are selling and the more prices go high the more profit margin there is ...

I cant imagine the amount of ebay returns if all there were was ungraded cards....arguments of not seeing the scan clearly and what 'near mint' is....

[SmokyBurgess]

Originally Posted by Mesquite

It's strange that someone hasn't come out with a computerized digital pattern/texture recognition based system that would give the same grade to the same card every time, and charge a flat rate for grading regardless of value. Technology certainly exists to do that, but maybe the development costs are more than the business model could recover. The number of cards such a system could grade per day would be way beyond human graders so it might make it up in volume, especially if everyone abandoned human graders.

Will the day come when they use an electron microscope to examine corners?

[Mountaineer1999]

I just dont get why anyone would have a '72 Wayne Garrett graded in the first place.