what do you look for in an Old Judge card?

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Posted By: Tom

with what Adam has pointed out. I've collected Old Judges for 5-6 years and all of mine are graded by SGC. Don't necessarily agree with all the grades but aesthetically, I like the holders and believe it or not, graded cards do typically sell better than ungraded cards in similar grades. Whether that can be attributed to what people perceive as proof of authenticity, I don't know.

As for backs on OJ's.....like everyone, I would prefer that they be entirely clean but since the backs were intended to be blank, I do not have major heartburn if there is writing or some type of blemish on the back. That does factor into my buying decision though. I know Jay has a SIGNIFICANT amount of OJ's and, as such, is primarily looking for pose variations. Since his quest is for the obscure, he is more likely willing to pay more for the poses he needs with less regard to condition or back sensitivity. I'm looking for players, not poses (except for Louisville OJ's.....).

As for SGC.....while I think they're definitely the best at grading, I do feel they are sometimes inconsistent on grading. They seem to place more of a premium on just card condition with not as much regard to registration or photo clarity. That does factor in, but I've sold SGC84's on ebay that had far worse clarity than SGC60's. Only knock on the 60's was that they had some corner wear.

Also.....if there is ANYTHING AT ALL on the back of an OJ, you will likely not get better than SGC40 with SGC.....right or wrong, they downgrade the card to that level, then work from there on condition. I've got two different Comiskey's. One has some paper attached the back and is graded SGC40 while the other has someone's name stamped in black ink on the back which was somewhat smudged. Same grade. That's where I do like the qualification MK from PSA. I only have 1 PSA graded OJ and I will likely cross it over to SGC sometime in the future. But.....PSA will give a card a grade based on the condition, then with writing on the back add the MK qualifier. I don't want to stir up a hornet's nest about qualifiers that has been hashed and rehashed ad naseum here but that's my feeling on the backs of OJ's.

One interesting thing with OJ's is the crease. Creases that break the front of the paper are pretty severe but I've got some OJ's with what I would term 'ripples' in the back of the paper. I was talking to Jay about this the other day that I really believe that the quality of paper wasn't what it is today and many of the creases or 'ripples' on the backs of these OJ's are period and part of the production process. Should they be graded differently? I don't know. I would just hate to see a really decent card that might get SGC70 to SGC84 be graded SGC40-50 due to a crease on the BACK of the card. And I have some of those in my collection.

I also agree with Harry in that I do like full disclosure when I bid on something in an auction. With notation to the back conditon as it MAY affect my bidding.