PSA Debacle - What to do for a Novice Collector?

[jchcollins]

If you go over on the prewar / main board, you will find a lot of consensus with the opinion that PSA still sells for more because big picture, the vast majority of collectors and investors of their product are either woefully ill-informed on the scandal, or (worse) know and simply do not care. Big wheel collectors of high-end vintage face a very bleak proposition if they truly care about cards not being altered, or the fact that their incredible PSA 8 T206 Whatever HOF'er that is worth 5 or 6 figures on the open market may suddenly be worth DRAMATICALLY less if they tell someone they care about that fact, and start a movement to trash PSA, their market value, and the value that their slabs currently bring to cards and collections. Mainly that said market value will drop quickly, and they will be left holding the bag.

Soooo....ummmm, why not just leave well enough alone? Yes, that card may be altered now that I read all this, but you know it looks really nice in that new slab, and it's in my safe deposit box anyway, and it would be really hard to prove for sure, er - wouldn't it?

It becomes an ends justifying the means situation. Not enough people care or have any real desire to burst the bubble to come forward. So what, some waves are being made on some message boards where people really care about the hobby. This too, shall pass. I could be wrong, but I will be very surprised if in the next 6-18 months, people start coming forward en masse to demand that PSA make good on their grading guarantee for a bunch of high dollar cards in slabs with grades that they don't agree with.

It's just stuff...right?