Card Grading Costs - what am I missing

[steve B]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

cost averaging. If you submit 1000 cards the wins make up for the losses (if you're any good at grading) So on the lower grade cards you make what you can and move on.

That's the explanation I got the first time I saw a dealer with a ton of graded cards at a show.
Hundreds of late 50's commons at below the standard fee.

They would essentially submit an entire collection less any obviously bad cards and the handful of great ones paid for the lower grade cards. The bulk mid grade commons pretty much just covered the bulk submission fees.

[Snowman]

Originally Posted by steve B

That's the explanation I got the first time I saw a dealer with a ton of graded cards at a show.
Hundreds of late 50's commons at below the standard fee.

They would essentially submit an entire collection less any obviously bad cards and the handful of great ones paid for the lower grade cards. The bulk mid grade commons pretty much just covered the bulk submission fees.

Always amazes me when I see dealers doing this. I always think it's really not that difficult to learn how to grade accurately, but then again, I'm someone with clinically diagnosed OCD and my attention to detail is certainly abnormal. A lot of experienced dealers simply don't know how to grade cards, and seemingly aren't capable of learning how to either. I remember Jason Koonce speaking in an interview once about how much more difficult it is to train graders than he thought it was going to be when he first started ISA. And given the inconsistency we all see now from PSA as they've grown to over 100 graders, they clearly struggle with it as well.