PWCC eye appeal rating

[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.

[Peter_Spaeth]

If a card has great centering, or otherwise has strong eye appeal, and you put up a good scan, why the hell does anyone need a sticker to tell them that???????? Are people really that helpless?

I suspect the stickers were mostly awarded to insiders and a high percentage were altered. So maybe they did serve the purpose of steering those who cared about altered cards AWAY from those examples.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

If a card has great centering, or otherwise has strong eye appeal, and you put up a good scan, why the hell does anyone need a sticker to tell them that???????? Are people really that helpless?

Yes. A majority of hobbyists evidently need validation from a corporation for anything and everything.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by G1911

Yes. A majority of hobbyists evidently need validation from a corporation for anything and everything.

It wasn’t that long ago, was it, that Brentsy was on top of the world.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

It wasn’t that long ago, was it, that Brentsy was on top of the world.

A short reign thankfully, brought down by his criminality and.... oh wait, no, that didn't happen.

[Republicaninmass]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

It wasn’t that long ago, was it, that Brentsy was on top of the world.

Still is, just for the eliti(st ) few!

[Casey2296]

Originally Posted by 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.

I would agree, the eye appeal sticker was mostly when they were selling on eBay. I always would shrug and say yep, that has great eye appeal but would always make me wonder, "is eye appeal a skill that other people don't have that would warrant an eye appeal specialist?".

[raulus]

Originally Posted by Casey2296

I would agree, the eye appeal sticker was mostly when they were selling on eBay. I always would shrug and say yep, that has great eye appeal but would always make me wonder, "is eye appeal a skill that other people don't have that would warrant an eye appeal specialist?".

They had this long writeup on the electronic version of the sticker about how they’ve seen billions of cards and so they know a superior example when they see one.

I think my favorite part of the whole thing was how they had a couple of spelling errors in their writeup. I emailed them about it once and they told me to mind my own business.