Sgc 11 / psa !!

[G1911]

Originally Posted by Fred

...but through the slab I can tell they're altered.


My grading standards are very strict, I don't need a TPG to tell me what grade a card is.

+1

The biggest pain, for me, is when the slab is obscuring the alteration (which of course is not the intent or purpose of the slab). Even today cards are not cut the same size; a card measuring properly does not mean it wasn't trimmed. The slab prevents proper examination of edges and the surface as well.

I, buy a ton of graded cards because that's what available mostly for cards over $100. All of them get cracked out, and sometimes I get a nasty surprise when doing so. Several times I've discovered a clearly trimmed card. Other times I discover they didn't look at the surface, and that the slab hides the damage until crack out.

For example, this T226 Jack O'Brien was an SGC 45/3.5 (how does a 3.5 on a 10 scale equate to a 45 on a 100 scale?). I thought it was a 3 when buying it, those corners are too weak and damaged for the + grade, but 3.5 is reasonable and within the norm. It looks fine, until you examine the surface. As shown in the angled pic, you can see the tiny wrinkles on the left side when angled under light. There's the corner creases in the upper right. In total, there are at least 14 creases and wrinkles on the card. In addition, there are multiple dimples and scratches you can see, that you can't see head on or through the obscuring of the slab. It's not a real problem for me, because I just want a copy of the card for my set and this one looks fine, but if I was taking the grade seriously, there's no way this is anything over a 2 at best, though it's a nice presenting 2 at best.

Generally, the graders do usually manage to correctly authenticate whether a card is real or not, and usually they don't miss major and obvious natural damage, but they very often miss not immediately obvious damage, which is usually given as the entire non-investment benefit of grading - that someone is taking a careful look and examining, and grading not on the eye scale but on a technical scale of damage so that the buyer doesn't get surprises like this.