Why I love grading! And before you blast me, this is SGC

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Posted By: warshawlaw

But they did not state the cards were fake, they merely refused to grade them and refunded my grading fees. I asked why and they said that they weren't comfortable with the issue because the cards I submitted were uncatalogued and the set was of unclear origins. While I appreciated the caution, I challenged them because the Wagner was catalogued in the blank-backed format and the book states that the set is not completely catalogued. They SGC rep I was speaking with claimed it was not in the book, we debated it, and it turned out that he was looking at an older book than I was, which had less info and did not have the Wagner listed. He admitted their mistake, graded the cards for free and paid my mailing both ways. The Chance and Bender are still uncatalogued, BTW, as are several others that have surfaced in the last year; maybe they'll be in there next year.

Turning now to the cards in question, if they are from a notebook, guess what, they aren't W519 or W520 cards. They are something else. I couldn't find the notebook cards in the 2005 SCD book (help??) and the listings for W519 and W520 don't mention the notebook cards. Does that make them fakes? No. Does it make them not what is listed? Yes. If my Pinkerton scorecards were not in the catalogs, I'd not have expected them to grade, so I can understand their reluctance to grade something of unknown origins that is uncatalogued under the name plate of a catalogued issue. In this case, it looks like the cards are cutouts from an item that wasn't made for cutting up. Should they be treated as strip cards or should they be treated like cutouts from a poster (like the blank-backed N28 and N29 "cards" that surface periodically but were cut from the Albums)? I honestly don't know that I would have slabbed these cards given what is known about them. IMHO the graders at SGC should have figured out that the cards were not what was listed rather than returning them as fakes of what was listed, and should have refunded your money for ungradeable cards. Bring them to the National and speak to SGC in person; I'd be willing to bet that they will fix any error they made.

Adam

You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know... morons.--Blazing Saddles