Grading of restored & damaged baseball cards

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Posted By: Al C.risafulli

What would an ungraded version in "about new" condition bring?

Here's the thing, as far as I'm concerned.

This whole issue is about protecting ethical people from unethical people.

SGC, for example, might take a hypothetical mint-looking Goudey Ruth and put it in a holder that says "Authentic - looks mint - rebuilt corners."

A buyer might get that card for a few thousand dollars and be happy to have it.

An UNETHICAL buyer might get that card, crack it out of the holder and submit it again and again, hoping to eventually get it into an 8 holder. He could do it a thousand times at ten bucks a pop, and if on that one thousandth time, it makes it into an 8 holder, he's golden.

So the grading company did it's job 999 out of 1000 times - a pretty solid success ratio - but that one mistake results in a five-figure profit. And if he gives up after 100 submissions, he can still sell the card raw as NMT and have a decent chance of breaking even.

The ethical seller wouldn't try it, and the ethical buyer wouldn't buy it. The unethical guy couldn't care less, nothing is going to stop him from being unethical.

Which is why I think that - like in every other industry - educated consumers are the best way to fight fraud.

-Al