One of the things that's wrong with the current grading system

[Archive]

Posted By: Judge Dred (Fred)

What's wrong... there are soooo many things that can be changed or improved. I'm not even going to get into the subjectivity of grading because subjectivity is a persons opinion or interpretation. There are however "definites". It's like math and literature. Math is a definite, numbers are involved and there is a right answer and wrong answers. Literature may include a persons analysis/opinion of what was read so the answers may not be black and white. There is more than one correct response.

1) Using the math analogy I have a pet peeve: CENTERING. This can be measured and it shouldn't be left to interpretation. A ratio is a ratio, what's so difficult to figure out. A ratio is DEFINED yet some of these grading companies just can't figure it out. Bottom line, if the centering doesn't meet the criteria set forth by the grading company then the grading company should not grade a card any higher than what the guidelines permit, regardless of any other attributes that the card may have.

2) IMO it's wrong for a grading service to provide a numerical grade to any card that has a COUPON removed/cut-off. For example, I don't get how a Zeenut with the coupon cut off can be graded higher than a Zeenut with it's coupon attached. The cut Zeenut was "mutilated". What if all four corners are sharp on the Zeenut with the "coupon removed" and the two top corners of the Zeenut "with the coupon" are razor sharp but the bottom corners are a little rounded. Why not grade the Zeenut with the coupon and rounded corners a high grade because you could conceiveably cut off the coupon and have four razor sharp corners. What about people that have strip cards with large borders. They could cut the card down to the borders and then the next day submit the card for grading and get an 8 or greater because of the sharp corners (assuming that the card is in nice condition).

I bet other collectors have their pet peeves...