T210 Old Mill Jackson in REA Auction-New Owner's Perspective

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Posted By: Corey R. Shanus

I am not aware of other T210s that have been graded authentic, although they certainly might be out there. I personally have never submitted a card to PSA or any other grading company for grading. Accordingly, I have no first-hand experience in how those companies operate. From what I have been told by people who are knowledgeable in PSA's ways, PSA will designate a card as authentic if in their view it exhibits evidence of trimming AND is significantly valuable. What to PSA crosses the threshold of being significantly valuable I haven't a clue. Some dealers/collectors I have discussed this issue with find this policy infuriating. They feel, and I tend to agree, that PSA should either apply the authentic designation to any card, regardless of its value, or apply it to none. In regard to my T210 Jackson, I can certainly understand how PSA would shy away from giving the card a numerical grade. I spent much time researching a very rare and poorly understood card set. For the fee PSA got for grading the card, I doubt they would spend hours and hours talking to T210 collectors, examining scans, etc. And even if they would, what would they have to gain by putting a grade on a such an expensive card unless they were 100% positive the subtly wavy cut was generated by the manufacturing process? Even a theoritical possibility only that the card was not as originally manufactured (which as I freely admit in my post cannot be 100% ruled out), would be enough for any prudent businessperson to avoid giving the card a numercial grade.