The (Base) Ball (card) Is In Our Court

[Archive]

Posted By: barrysloate

While all areas of sports memorabilia needs policing- autographs, uniforms, game used equipment, etc., let's for the sake of discussion stick to baseball cards. In this arena we actually have a form of policing, and that is the major grading companies. Unfortunately, each has somewhat different standards, all to some degree make mistakes, and an incredible amount of money rides on the slightest grading nuance. As I've previously used in an example, put a high end 7 and a weak 8 of the same card on ebay and witness the great discrepancy in prices, and yet each card is probably the same. The best thing that ever happened to the baseball card hobby was the third party grading system, but it has brought with it so much extra baggage that it is just as much a part of the problem as it is part of the solution. And because the major services are in competition, and stiff competition at that, we would never get them to adhere to identical grading standards. Any suggestions?