Grading questions (various) with photos

[swarmee]

A miscut is either when part of your card is cut off OR you have part of an adjoining card showing up. So this card, if it was an EX 5 otherwise, would get a 5(MC) grade and the stain would be ignored. PSA doesn't award or even mention a second qualifier on a card. For a registry set, cards with grades above 2 lose 2 grades for what they equate to, so this would be a 3 if you counted it towards a registry set. If the other card wasn't visible on the back, it would be a 5(OC). Same basic result. Most qualifier cards will be priced around the same as a card 2 grades lower, but since yours has multiple problems and is severely off-center, it might be valued four grades lower.

[swarmee]

Also, PSA doesn't tell you the subgrades of what each aspect graded (corners, edges, centering, surface/creases, registration, etc).

BGS will tell you the grades of each of those components, and their normal rule of thumb is not to give a grade higher than +1 of the lowest component score. They don't put this on their Vintage cases, though, and their dividing line is 1980.

Here's an example:

1981 Kellogg's 3-D Super Stars #5 - Mike Schmidt [BVG*9]
Courtesy of COMC.com

If the surface was a 4 instead of 9, the highest this card could get graded is probably a 5.

[Mesquite]

Thanks for the replies. Please excuse my ignorance on the lingo, but what does registry set mean?

swarmee: if you wouldn't mind explaining, could you describe what takes this card (ignoring the centering) down to EX-5 that you mentioned (I'm assuming that would be the grade you'd give it, ignoring the centering)?

There must be something I'm not understanding about the PSA description of corners. They use the word "fraying" down through grade 6, then they use the word "rounding" for grade 5 and below. Is that the key point here, and these corners would be considered rounded rather than frayed?

To me, the corners look more like they are slightly crushed (for example the card was set on the corners), whereas "rounded" would to me imply that some material has been permanently eroded away. So that was my thinking for them being more in the "frayed" category rather than "rounded."

Just out of curiosity, is there standard level of magnification that graders use?

[swarmee]

Originally Posted by Mesquite

Thanks for the replies. Please excuse my ignorance on the lingo, but what does registry set mean?

swarmee: if you wouldn't mind explaining, could you describe what takes this card (ignoring the centering) down to EX-5 that you mentioned (I'm assuming that would be the grade you'd give it, ignoring the centering)?

I didn't look at the card too hard, I was just theorizing that if it was a 5, it would be a 5(MC). I think it would be more likely to be a 7(MC) looking at it further. As to something getting two qualifiers, I had never seen it. But AUTH(QUAL) is not the same as 7(MC)(ST) which I thought was what begsu was proposing.

http://www.psacard.com/PSASetRegistry/

Take a look around the link. Dial down to the 1952 Topps Baseball set. You can see that there are OVER 200 COLLECTORS trying to complete this set in the best condition possible. The top set has a 9.01 GPA with 100% completion, meaning they've put together this 65 year old set in MINT condition average for all 407 cards. Pretty amazing!

Some would say that PSA's set registry has boosted the overall value of all vintage cards, because making people compete to have the best set of all will get them to open up their wallets. As in, a PSA 10 Nolan Ryan 1978 Topps just sold for $17K, rather than the $20 it may have sold for 10 years ago ungraded.

I am working on two registry sets, for two tobacco issues that are not commonly collected (T51 College Series and T56 Emblem Fraternal series). If you go into the Non-Sports or Multi-Sports, you can even see scans of all the cards on the PSA website that I've uploaded. It's fun, but grading fees can become excessive. ;-)

[begsu1013]

yes, i am number 7 on the 52 topps set w/ pack, actually just got bumped down to number 8. so, these are not the droids you are looking for. move along, move along...

my psa registry sets link is listed below....it's pretty neat. you can do player sets, rookie sets, yearly sets, type sets, whatever your collecting addiction/fix requires....

but yes, i was sayin that there are labels out there that do say 3mc w/ stain written on the bottom line of the flip out there. they aren't common but they do exist and are usually found on older cards...

[Bestdj777]

I've never seen the multiple qualifiers either. I was wondering what they do. And, OP, I was really just pondering but realize my comments may have seemed a little harsh. I see nothing wrong with grading--I have a Mantle registry and have submitted a couple of cards for grading (high value cards for insurance purposes or for resale).

For whatever it is worth, some people like the miscut cards. I'll pick up reasonably priced, miscut cards if they have part of a Mantle card showing.

Oh, and welcome to the board! I look forward to reading your posts.

[Mesquite]

No problem Bestdj777, and thanks for the welcome.

Here are a couple other cards I'd appreciate some grading guidance on.
1974 McCovey #250, first at regular size (looking at the one in the upper left), then zoomed front and back:







The front centering is 85/15 which would be a PSA 5 best case for centering.
As far as staining on the back, PSA says "very slight" for 8 and 9, "slight" for grade 7, and "minor" for grade 6. Which of those 3 stain levels would this be? It stands out more when you zoom in, that's for sure.

For the corners, PSA 8 says "1 or 2 corners with very slight fraying." Would this card meet that (just as a grade for the corners, realizing the other things will drop it overall)?

But I'm not sure how to combine all those into an overall grade.


and also this 1970 Munson #189.





Centering is good, and on the corners it seems that if you look closely, 3 of the corners have a very slight fuzziness to them. So does that make it at most a PSA 7 overall? There might also be some sort of print imperfection in the gray part on the face of the card (or maybe it's a defect in the print stock not the printing itself)...is that at a level that it would get dinged?

I have to say, I'm thoroughly confused on PSA's corner grading consistency. I've seen ebay cards with 4 sharp corners and no other flaws grade at a PSA 5, and quite a few card that only grade 6 or 7 but have 4 sharp corners and no other apparent flaws.

Thanks for any tips.

PS, thanks for the PSA registry links. A person could spend waaaay too much time browsing through that.

[begsu1013]

Originally Posted by swarmee

A miscut is either when part of your card is cut off OR you have part of an adjoining card showing up. So this card, if it was an EX 5 otherwise, would get a 5(MC) grade and the stain would be ignored. PSA doesn't award or even mention a second qualifier on a card. For a registry set, cards with grades above 2 lose 2 grades for what they equate to, so this would be a 3 if you counted it towards a registry set. If the other card wasn't visible on the back, it would be a 5(OC). Same basic result. Most qualifier cards will be priced around the same as a card 2 grades lower, but since yours has multiple problems and is severely off-center, it might be valued four grades lower.

they most certainly do. it happens on rare occasions, but i have seen them definitely do a 3(MC) and will write "stain" on the bottom line of the flip. They will also do this if a card is simply assigned an "authentic" grade and will qualify the bottom line with mc, st or mk. it's not universally done by all the graders but they do pump out these every once in a while if that second qualifier is just as blatantly obvious...100%.

will let swarmee answer your questions addressed to him, but they use 10x magnification and that card wouldn't get a 5mc.

i don't buy cards w. qualifiers and if submitting request for straight numerical grade vs getting a higher grade w/ a qualifier, but here is an example:

[Mesquite]

Love the shifted Rose card begsu1013! So I assume this entire sheet was miscut...how did they not catch this?

Here's a strange one (1974 Jim Kaat #440). The (left-right) centering is 75/25 (I measured it with some calipers using the on-screen image), but there is some printing partially showing in the upper right. Would this be tagged as a miscut because you can see that, even though the centering is fair?

That must be some sort of printing serial number, not an adjacent card, so I'm not sure it counts the same way...

[begsu1013]

yes, it would get the MC qualifier. it doesn't have to be a card. it could be the page number, test print colors, the "post cereal" logo if a hand cut card, whatever...if it runs into something that shouldn't be on the card, then auto MC qualifier.

and thanks! i love that card. it was a self sub and requested no qualifiers and they still stuck me w/ it. was hoping for the straight "a" grade. but still. i love the 71 cards, love pete rose, love that he was w/ the reds, but has a red sox team, i just love everything about that card. will never part w/ her!

[vthobby]

To answer your original question. With the gum residue on the back and the centering, your Carew is a 3 at best. I have submitted hundreds of cards to PSA, Beckett, and SGC. The residue is not good, the centering is very bad. McCovey is a 4. Munson is a 5 or 6.

Mike

[Mesquite]

How do you distinguish between a PSA 9 and 10? Other than a slight difference in centering allowance for those 2 grades, it doesn't seem there's much difference, especially for newer cards from a factory set where there's no chance of staining.

I've looked at many 9's vs 10's on ebay and I'm not able to conclude much.

What percentage of a just-opened factory sets would likely be 10's versus 9's (Is it the case that a newly-opened set--if centering is good--would have no card that would grade lower than 9?)

PS, and just curious, anyone know the number of cards that are submitted for grading each year across all card grading services? Do you think it's over a million cards?

[swarmee]

http://www.psacard.com/ shows that they've graded/certified 24 million items since '98. So a million cards a year just through PSA wouldn't be surprising.

There might be minor edge/corner wear on a 9 compared to a 10. Base cards from a modern factory set should all be 9s or 10s unless they have some kind of defect. I saw a modern card with a smeared numbering stamp that was awarded a 3.5 recently. Not sure why someone sent it in for grading in the first place.

Modern cards can also have surface issues that might knock them down, or they may have gotten dinged in the packing process. Cards with windows to see the jersey/bat sometimes have creasing around the window area, that knocks them down to about 6s.