Grading hits home

[Archive]

Posted By: barrysloate

I agree with you Dan and I know that many of the graders are young kids who are being taught how to grade on the fly. But my question is: Why is the hobby a total slave to what these graders say? You know that the hobby today forces everyone to send their cards in. Could you imagine trying to get top dollar on NR MT/MT cards without getting them graded? You would get less than fifty cents on the dollar for them. And no, no one has ever approached me to grade cards, but you know what, I make mistakes too. I miss things such as imperceptible trims or tiny creases, I think we all do. But the grading services make the same mistakes too. The only difference is they don't own the cards and are not selling them, so the theory is they don't have the same bias that a seller might have. That is fine, but the opinion of any grader, whether selling cards from inventory or working for PSA or SGC, is just that, an an opinion, nothing more. But if it is my opinion versus their opinion, I will lose every time, and I know that. It may not be right, but there is nothing I can do. I am forced to send all my cards in to be graded, because the system tells me that is the only way I can get full value for them. It is a deeply flawed system, but what can be done? And I appreciate you calling me a hobby icon, but I'm just a guy who's been selling baseball cards for a long time. But thanks for the kind words.