Question about Old Judges

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Posted By: Robert A

Why do old judges with faded images still grade so high?
Shouldn't the image have an impact on the grade?
thanks
Robert

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Posted By: Judge Dred

I believe that the grading companies look at all aspects of the card:

surface
corners
edges
image (contrast, clarity, etc)

An Old Judge with a light image can potentially grade high if the corners are sharp, the surface is clean and the back is clean.

My guess is if this board had to decide the criteria to grade an Old Judge the main consideration would be to the image quality first.

There are people that consider the backs minimally important. If this were the case there would be a lot of higher grade OJ cards.

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Posted By: Robert A

It just seems strange that a card would be graded excellent or better when you can barely see the image.

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Posted By: hankron

Robert, many to most Old Judge collectors likely agree with you, especially when the grade given is like ExMt or Near Mint. Old Judges are little photographs after all.

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Posted By: warshawlaw

I had three examples of the same OJ all slabbed. I kept the one grading fair because it had a crystal clear picture but back damage from album removal. The ex+ and vg ones, I sold off. To me, the image is everything, short of a skinned back.

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Posted By: Jay Miller

Ataboy Adam!

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Posted By: ramram

.

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Posted By: Julie

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Posted By: HW

are probably the ultimate example of buy the card and not the grade.

For my collection, I would much rather have a card with a superb photo, but with wear on the corners and back damage, that may only grade Fair than a card graded Ex-Mt with a light photo.

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Posted By: Richard Masson

Corner wear is 10%. Back is 0%.