Card grading bias?

[steve B]

Ganley -- does it have a slight bend at the upper right where the light horizontal line is?

McBride - Unless it's printed in, it looks like some scuffing on the left side of the portrait.

Clymer - maybe a bit of surface wear to the right of the portrait? Hard to tell. The lower left corner is a little worse then the other cards corners.

Johnson - Nothing obvious, if the others don't have the little bends and surface wear I'd say it's the same.

I think 55 for Johnson is maybe a bit high, but maybe only 1/2 a grade. Without any issues I'd think the others might be a half grade under.


I've seen some stuff that makes me think some HOF or rare cards do get a little bump. That's probably human nature having some influence. Think about the threads about what one card someone would want or would keep. Hardly anyone picks commons.

Overall it's still an improvement over the pre-grading era. The one Wagner I've seen in person had a few serious creases, and writing on the back. The antique auction described it right, and had it as I think F-G. Over the next year and a half or so it was sold 4 times. And became in turn G, G-VG, and VG. With creases and writing.....And each time the price increased by a lot 30K at the original auction, and I think 90K the last time I saw it. I think it's number 39 in the T206 resource gallery.

Pre grading all those postcards would be EX_MT or maybe even near mint from most dealers.

Steve B