A New Grading Company

[RCMcKenzie]

I would spend the money on a team that tries to develop a longer battery life.

I think there could be a niche place for a company that only grades baseball cards older than say 1959.

I think current tpgs could just scrap vintage grading and focus on the Magic the Gathering, Mike Trout, and James Harden card customers.

[bnorth]

I don't think it would be that hard or expensive to start a new grading company. Damian Werner run GAI/Global Authority out of his garage for several years. A former member also run a small grading company out of Florida. I think they might have even teamed up towards the end.

There is also a company out there that will sell you slabs/sealer fairly cheap. Heck they will even do all the work for your and design you flip. All you have to do is give the cards a grade and they do the rest.

[steve B]

I think there's room for a new grading company.
I don't think it will work if it's at all similar to the current ones. That "service" is a market that's totally overloaded, and has a pretty sound near monopoly as part of it.

A company with a different approach though, might have a small chance.

The two routes I see as possibly working
1) A fairly high end service with a high minimum price for grading, tiered pricing, but related to value rather than value and turnaround time. In other words, the grading takes as long as it takes. The company takes the time to get it right very nearly every time. The minimum charge would be fairly high, so it would be almost exclusively for more expensive cards.

Full scans taken and archived
A new sort of holder with space inside for a sheet with a detailed report on the grade etc.
That new holder could be customizable. I'm picturing something with gaskets like SGC, but not thin enough to cause problems, and available in different colors. Like red for Reds or Red Sox cards, white or gray for black bordered cards like 71T or 50 Drakes.
A solid database that's publicly available.
Enough knowledge to not need a further 3rd party checklist to be published before adding something. (If you're an expert, you're an expert right? )

2)Something along the lines of the Philatelic foundation, which can be donated to, and has an extensive library and reference collection.
http://www.philatelicfoundation.org/...ic-foundation/

[Yoda]

I love the fact that you guys have devoted much thought to the subject already. You know, it just might be doable. With the right graders and ample capital, outsourcing the slabbing and marketing the company's mission, it just might be viable. Any venture capitalists out there?

[drcy]

Certainly, improvements to grading and authentication are essential, but I'd focus on a reevaluation and revaluation of grading as a whole. What it is, what is supposed to do, and how grading should be considered by collectors.

There's nothing wrong with 75% accuracy if everyone realizes, considers it and uses it as 75% accuracy.

Registry final calculations of numeral grades to the .00 decimal point, with no consideration of the margins of error which are likely (offhand guess) higher 10%, has always been folly on its face.

"Knowing the extent of one's ignorance is true knowledge."-- Confucius

I think qualified graders offer useful independent opinions, especially considering cards are often bought and sold online and many buyers are not authentication experts. If I was about to pay $10,000 card from someone 1,5000 miles away, I'd appreciate an independent (if fallible) expert having looked at it in person But graders and grading companies should be treated as giving fallible opinions. Even grading companies themselves say grading involves subjectivity and the assigned grades can change upon resubmissions.

However, early economists had to change their models because the learned that, despite their models' axioms of rational behavior, there is a lot of irrationality in human buying and selling. That there's irrationality in baseball card and grading valuations would not surprise economists