Why I Hate the Whole Card Grading Thing...

[savedfrommyspokes]

Originally Posted by KCRfan1

I don't believe it really matters that this card is difficult to find centered. The grade of an 8 is what it is. I would think that most of us hold an " 8 " to a higher standard than what is described below though, I know I do.

NM-MT 8: Near Mint-Mint
A PSA NM-MT 8 is a super high-end card that appears Mint 9 at first glance, but upon closer inspection, the card can exhibit the following: a very slight wax stain on reverse, slightest fraying at one or two corners, a minor printing imperfection, and/or slightly off-white borders. Centering must be approximately 65/35 to 70/30 or better on the front and 90/10 or better on the reverse.

Having built the 72 set graded(as well as several other sets) there is obviously quite a bit of subjectivity within the grading, as in this case to award this card an "8" with the tilt cut. While not the norm in my experience, this card still appears to meet the qualifications for an 8 centering wise, as PSA's requirements do not mention tilt cutting as an imperfection that counts against this grade level.

http://www.psacard.com/psasetregistr...et.aspx?s=3092

While the scan makes it tough for me to tell the condition of the corners, a grader applied their "subjective" opinion to the card in regards to the corners and awarded the card an "8".

This card has always been a low pop card (currently only 54 8s and 15 higher) likely due to how tough this card is to find centered. Seems like the fact that this specific example is much more reasonably centered than most copies of this card helped it subjectively grade an 8. In other words, because this card is a challenge to find well centered, did someone allow more room on this 8 than other 8's and have their opinion swayed because of the low pop? Likely so, IMO.

In the past with the graded sets that I built (and still have them), my enjoyment of the sets came from the challenge of building them cost effectively, as this set 72 Topps fully graded maybe offered once or twice a year. Whenever buying a graded card though, I still bought the card and not the grade. When building my 72 set I still would have considered this card, but at a much lower price than a more nicely centered example.


As a collector I much prefer building ungraded sets(as long as they are a challenge to complete). As I move back and work on older sets, hardly any of my cards are graded for this reason.


Why would someone grade a 72 518 card? Because if a collector would like to complete the challenge of building a 72 graded set, this is a tough card to find as many are located in other collector's sets already.