PWCC eye appeal rating

[G1911]

Extremely helpful. PWCC’s high integrity, attention to detail, and independence without fiscal interest in the results of a card they certified make them the perfect judges for me to outsource my thinking too.

[jchcollins]

Originally Posted by g1911

extremely helpful. Pwcc’s high integrity, attention to detail, and independence without fiscal interest in the results of a card they certified make them the perfect judges for me to outsource my thinking too.

lol.

[jchcollins]

I'd say the stickers if anything are worth less than they were before. All of this is gimmickry - purple label, PWCC AA, E, whatever. As TPG grades supposedly consider only the physical condition of the cardboard and not necessarily eye appeal, stickers like this were originally just another stamp of approval that "Yes, this is a PSA 5, but it's a damn GOOD looking PSA 5." Ok, whatever. Given that the 5 itself is just someone's opinion and not an end-all, be-all pronouncement of value and card bragging rights hierarchy, how is a sticker any different?

To me these things are interesting, but unnecessary. Kind of like ebay re-authenticating cards already in PSA and SGC holders and then putting them in a neat little blue box to make them seem more official. It's largely a waste of time.

[Peter_Spaeth]

IMO worthless. But the market at least in the past has typically paid some premium for them.

[raulus]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

IMO worthless. But the market at least in the past has typically paid some premium for them.

I've always felt like we don't have enough stickers on our slabs around here. Because a good sticker tells a lot more of the story than the slab ever will.

Allow me to remove my tongue from my cheek now.

But I do agree with Peter that the market has paid a premium for them. I've seen bestickered pieces with 50-100% premium. Even when it doesn't get that ludicrous, the premium is often easily 10-20%.

I suppose we can debate whether this result occurs because the item is truly superior even without the sticker, or whether the sticker itself is just worth that much.

I will say that the PWCC sticker seems to mostly be about centering. And I think the market over the last few years has seen a more pronounced focus on centering, with well-centered pieces commanding a serious premium over the rest. So the sticker premium could be more about the centering premium more than anything.

[bk400]

Thanks -- looks like the experts have spoken.

My first instinct was that it was overkill to have a grader grade another grader's grade, effectively. And then I googled PWCC and read about the allegations going back in their history.

But it does seem like there are people paying for their eye appeal service. I tend to see them in cards where there is a high population of, say, 8s and a much lower population of (and much higher price for) 9s and 10s. Then the 8s get the eye appeal grade.

I would have thought that sellers of high eye appeal cards could do something like superimpose images of their cards over one of those card centering tools.

[Kutcher55]

Their eye appeal ratings were brilliant and ahead of their time. I realize that has always been an unpopular opinion and yeah I think they are a shady outfit to say the least. But the eye appeal ratings generated tremendous results at auction because the cards tended to have, well, great eye appeal.

I made this point a few years ago and a board regular freaked out about it. But I stand by it to this day. This does not excuse them from being involved in card doctoring, and many of the cards with strong eye appeal rankings surely were altered, but again, great concept. They could have built a great business on it but greed got in the way.