My PSA Damage Tale

[vintagetoppsguy]

Originally Posted by jhs5120

This hobby was a cesspool of greed and fraud in the 1990's.

If you don't think the hobby has become a bigger cesspool of greed and fraud as a result of grading, you've got your head buried in the sand. I would absolutely love to debate this with you on the open forum.

Let me give you one example. The whole PSA half grade implementation was a result of greed - PSA wanting the Kool Aid drinkers to resubmit their cards so they could be charged again. Not only was it greed on PSA's part, but also greed on the part of the collector in thinking their PSA 8 could become a PSA 8.5 and magically increase the value...even though it's the same card.

If it weren't greed, why did Joe Orlando flip flop his stance of half point grades? Here are two quotes from him (about four and a half years apart) regarding half point grades.

"From the start, I have been against .5 grades" 7/10/2003
"I stand behind it 100%" (referring to the implementation of half point grades" 1/17/2008

So, what changed? Greed! Again, if you don't think greed has increased with grading, you've been hiding under a rock or something. I have many, many more examples.