The Opportunity

[Fballguy]

Originally Posted by Mark17

GU dealers aren't shy about describing their items to the best of their knowledge and ability - and putting it in writing in the form of an LOA. Why not for cards, too?

Cards would be much more difficult. It's easy to tell if a jersey has a sewn repair. It's apparently VERY difficult to tell if a card has been doctored. Even the paid "experts" can't tell.

[perezfan]

I thought the same at first. But after seeing a ton of very obvious "misses" lately, I'm starting to believe those graders knew exactly what they were doing.

As for the OP's concept, I think it has some merit, and could potentially help to strengthen the hobby. With so many of us griping and complaining about PSA's incompetence, at least he is offering an alternative solution to the unskilled and possibly corrupt TPG graders.

[Mark17]

Originally Posted by perezfan

As for the OP's concept, I think it has some merit, and could potentially help to strengthen the hobby. With so many of us griping and complaining about PSA's incompetence, at least he is offering an alternative solution to the unskilled and possibly corrupt TPG graders.

There ARE a lot of very knowledgeable, good, honest card dealers in this hobby, many in this forum. I would certainly trust them to inspect a card I was buying, and their desire to be accurate to build their good reputation, more than somebody working for a TPG company.

For one thing, a dealer will know where his cards are coming from, and if he gets suspicious, he can stop buying from that person. For another, the dealer will be doing his best to correctly assess cards before adding them to his inventory in the first place. And lastly, if an altered card does slip through once in awhile (which would be inevitable,) it would be an honest miss.

Bottom line: when we buy cards other than in person, we want someone to tell us if the card is problematic. So what I'm saying is, wouldn't the logical people to do that be the people who are already highly respected card dealers? And all of us would have our own lists of most trusted sellers whom we'd be most comfortable buying from.

[oldjudge]

This is an insurance policy. If dealers or auction houses do this they will have to incorporate the cost of this guarantee (money back I assume) into their product. How much are you willing to pay for an authenticity guarantee from a dealer? My guess is that it will add 15-25% to the cost of everything you buy.

[Peter_Spaeth]

The great virtue of a market economy is that if dealers see an opportunity for profit in this, they will do it. Like Jay, I'm skeptical, but we'll see.