Grading raw vintage cards for trade or resale purposes

[OhioLawyerF5]

Originally Posted by perezfan

Strongly disagree...

Yesterday's "4" (obvious creasing, paper loss, round corners, heavy soiling, dull color, poor registration):

https://www.ebay.com/itm/145235228744


Today's "4" (no creasing or wrinkles, no paper loss, no soiling, good corners, great color and registration):

https://www.ebay.com/itm/375976800862

Make no mistake... The grading standards have changed by 2-3 full points over the past decade.

Those are outlier examples and are in no way indicative of the average or standard for that grade, then or now. You can find images of 4s from 25 years ago that look just like your second example, and pictures of cards from today that look like your first one. I agree that grading has overall gotten a little harsher, it is not nearly as extreme as your outliers make it appear. Never use the exception to prove the rule.

[perezfan]

Originally Posted by OhioLawyerF5

Those are outlier examples and are in no way indicative of the average or standard for that grade, then or now. You can find images of 4s from 25 years ago that look just like your second example, and pictures of cards from today that look like your first one. I agree that grading has overall gotten a little harsher, it is not nearly as extreme as your outliers make it appear. Never use the exception to prove the rule.

Not outliers...

You are obviously a big fan of TPG, but it took me no time at all to find that egregious example. Could've found a bunch more that were equally ridiculous if I had the time. Even the biggest PSA apologist would admit the standards are a MINIMUM of 2 points different than a decade ago. PSA is lying (shocker) when they tell you it's not.

[OhioLawyerF5]

Originally Posted by perezfan

Not outliers...

You are obviously a big fan of TPG, but it took me no time at all to find that egregious example. Could've found a bunch more that were equally ridiculous if I had the time. Even the biggest PSA apologist would admit the standards are a MINIMUM of 2 points different than a decade ago. PSA is lying (shocker) when they tell you it's not.

LOL

Obviously.

As a matter of fact, I don't like grading, prefer my cards raw, and crack out nearly every graded card I own.

But obviously I'm a fan of grading. Nice observation, detective.

[perezfan]

Originally Posted by OhioLawyerF5

LOL

Obviously.

As a matter of fact, I don't like grading, prefer my cards raw, and crack out nearly every graded card I own.

But obviously I'm a fan of grading. Nice observation, detective.

If you are anti-grading, I stand corrected. But here's another example that took 2 minutes to find....

Early graded PSA "4"...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/13545328130...Bk9SR5yJ_LqoZQ

More recently graded PSA "2"...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/27583459277...Bk9SR4i4o7uoZQ

If both were raw/ungraded and priced the same.... I'd take the "2" as it is slightly better.

[JollyElm]

I've written about this before, but it bears repeating...

Be very careful when you're looking to buy an ungraded card in a dealer's case when (virtually) everything else is sitting inside of a slab.
Big red flag (your experience may vary).

If everything is graded, then why wouldn't the expensive Mickey Mantle (for example) be graded, too, since all the cards in slabs were submitted recently?
Did he submit that one with the rest and it got 'rejected' by the TPG, but he's not disclosing why?

I saw this a lot recently with cases full of SGC cards. Since they have such quick turnaround and are (you may or may not agree) inexpensive to grade,
dealers were obviously sending everything off to get them back in time for shows.
But there would be a lone Willie Mays or Sandy Koufax card sitting among them in a top loader, not graded. Sure, there may be legitimate reasons for it, but you have to ask yourself (or the dealer), "Why??"

At a minimum, make sure you have a newer card on hand to make sure it (Topps-era card) is the correct size (not short or miscut).

Absolutely something to keep in mind (no disrespect to dealers intended).

[jayshum]

Originally Posted by JollyElm

I've written about this before, but it bears repeating...

Be very careful when you're looking to buy an ungraded card in a dealer's case when (virtually) everything else is sitting inside of a slab.
Big red flag (your experience may vary).

If everything is graded, then why wouldn't the expensive Mickey Mantle (for example) be graded, too, since all the cards in slabs were submitted recently?
Did he submit that one with the rest and it got 'rejected' by the TPG, but he's not disclosing why?

I saw this a lot recently with cases full of SGC cards. Since they have such quick turnaround and are (you may or may not agree) inexpensive to grade,
dealers were obviously sending everything off to get them back in time for shows.
But there would be a lone Willie Mays or Sandy Koufax card sitting among them in a top loader, not graded. Sure, there may be legitimate reasons for it, but you have to ask yourself (or the dealer), "Why??"

At a minimum, make sure you have a newer card on hand to make sure it (Topps-era card) is the correct size (not short or miscut).

Absolutely something to keep in mind (no disrespect to dealers intended).

That's a good point and not something I had thought about before.

[Beercan collector]

Here’s a head scratcher - you can get a legitimate 8 Brett in the $600-$750 range , The only way the winning bidder is coming out ahead here is if he knows somebody in the grading industry - this card is not at eight - Not because of the tuft of fuzz at the bottom left corner but also the general surface wear in the same area - bidder is losing money unless he gets bogus 8.5 or 9