Sgc 11 / psa !!

[steve B]

Originally Posted by jchcollins

There is nothing much about the state of professional grading today which couldn't have been predicted starting in about the late 1990's. You think card grading is ridiculous now, look into coin grading. 10 different flavors of mint?

That's one thing I can't really see fault in.

The nature of coins and the traditional grading system was like that long before modern third party grading.

To a coin collector "mint" is a coin just as it came from the mint. Because most were simply put into cloth sacks and shipped to banks most recieved no wear from circulating, but did get lots of knicks from rattling around with other coins.
So you can have a coin that hasn't circulated, but was on the bottom of a bag at the bottom of the pile and looks like it did a couple rounds with a bear. OR you can have one that was on top of the top bag, and is nearly perfect.

Both are "mint" but one is far nicer than the other.

If you get to San Francisco, take the tour of the old mint. Hopefully they still show one of the old metal lined vaults that has dents which are coin impressions from the 1800's at least 5 feet up the wall!

[Rhotchkiss]

Fred, I agree with your general sentiment. The grade is an opinion, the verification of authenticity is not. Opinions are like assholes - everyone has one, including me, and I can make up my own mind about “grade”/quality. But I should be able to rely on a TPG’s determination regarding authenticity/alteration. For this reason, it really bothers me when TPGs mess this up, especially when they grade obvious reprints!

[perezfan]

Agree with the OP and basically all others who've chimed in here...

The advent of TPG grading (and the corruption/capriciousness associated with it) is what drove me from collecting cards with some memorabilia sprinkled in to collecting memorabilia with a few cards sprinkled in.

I know that's a run-on sentence and will leave it to the others to eloquently describe their experiences. But suffice to say that the God-like importance people put upon the TPGs drove me away from cards and over to memorabilia. When thousands of altered cards began showing up in numbered slabs (with no negative consequences for the TPGs), it just cemented the decision for me.

Probably fortunate timing on my part, seeing what happened to card prices shortly after the grading scandal. I still love vintage cards... but only those that don't come with a barcode and meaningless number attached.

[Johnny630]

For as much as well all have our criticisms of TPG’s I have accepted and acknowledged that if it wasn’t for the grading companies my collection wouldn’t be worth nearly as much as it is now without them. The bottom line is they have helped make me and others make lots of money over the years in cards. Sure I’ve lost some too but on the majority, it’s been an overwhelming gain broadly speaking.

[Fred]

Wow, how the heck did the Mack 1915 CJ reprint get encapsulated with an actual grade. Exception, not the rule - hopefully that's the case but there's just TOO much crap that gets by.

What's an acceptable screw up rate? .25% .5% 1% ????

When a trimmed card is slabbed with a high grade then it may be one of the low percentage screw ups, but it could be a $10K+ screw up. That's the kind of stuff these TPGs are supposed to not allow, but we see it time and again. I think the biggest alteration the TPGs miss is TRIMMING. Then there's bleaching, adding color or general repair to a card. Just my opinion - if a card doesn't meet a standard size requirement and the corners are RAZOR sharp, then it doesn't get a numerical grade - just call it AUTHENTIC. Sure, there are going to be cases the card is a true factory gem, but in most cases an undersized card with RAZOR sharp corners is TRIMMED. How many JUMBO cards do you see with RAZOR sharp corners? Crickets for the most part.

Originally Posted by Johnny630

For as much as well all have our criticisms of TPG’s I have accepted and acknowledged that if it wasn’t for the grading companies my collection wouldn’t be worth nearly as much as it is now without them. The bottom line is they have helped make me and others make lots of money over the years in cards. Sure I’ve lost some too but on the majority, it’s been an overwhelming gain broadly speaking.

Johnny, I want to preface this by saying that the following is not a knock nor a criticism so please don't take it that way. Collectors collect for different reasons.

I have NO clue what all my stuff is worth because I don't care. I collect this stuff because I like it. I don't spend money on cards that I can't afford to "lose". If card prices were to drop 90%, I couldn't care less. It just means there will be more card board for me to collect, but realistically that's not going to happen.

I'm sure that many people that have been collecting for years could probably cash out and retire but what fun is that? Sometimes I catch myself thinking I should do just that, but as mentioned before, this cardboard collection has no monetary value to me, it's just cardboard (some surrounded by plastic).


It would have been nice if an industry standard was set up for grading before the TPGs started mass encapsulation. Perhaps that would have required a crystal ball to foresee all the crap people would try to pull to screw people over. Least we forget PSA's first graded card.

Grading standards could have helped the hobby enrich itself. Instead the TPGs (that just don't care) have made themselves wealthy at the expense of a bunch of dorks that like to collect pictures of dead guys on cardboard.