Diamond Cuts and grading companies

[TanksAndSpartans]

Hi All,

I mostly post on the football forum, but I wanted to post this question on the main board to get more traffic.

This may be a sample size issue as I don't have a huge collection of graded (my experience is with PSA) cards, but my diamond cut cards are graded low. I can think of 2 types of diamond cut cards - one type is where the card itself isn't "square" and the other type is where the image within a basically "square" card isn't square. In terms of shapes, I would say I have cards that are parallelograms and cards that are rectangles containing images that are parallelograms.

I can think of a few diamond cut cards in particular such that the diamond cut is the main condition issue in my opinion, yet the grades are in the PSA 4 range. I always assumed the grade largely reflected the diamond cut. Yet I've been seeing diamond cut cards recently that aren't downgraded to that low level at all. And when you read the PSA grading standards, I can't find anyplace where the term "diamond cut" is even used.

A few questions - would appreciate any answers or opinions:

Has anyone ever talked to one of the grading companies about this diamond cut issue? (In theory if its not defined as an issue, then a diamond cut card could receive a perfect grade, right?)

Do people think this is a grading factor, just not documented?

Would people consider this issue different than centering? In my mind it has to be because I can visualize (kind of) an image within a card such that the image's edges are everywhere equidistant from the card's edges i.e. perfect centering despite the fact the card itself isn't square. For the case of a square card, I think I can also imagine a diamond centered within the square.

Finally, this isn't a complete theoretical post - I have a card I'm thinking about resubmitting..... Thanks for any replies.

[toledo_mudhen]

It appears that the Highest grade a card could receive from SGC is an 84 (7)

Per their grading standards they only mention diamond for that level :

84 NRMT 7 70/30 or better centering, slight wear on some corners, minor scratching, some print spots or speckling, and print lines or refractor lines are acceptable. Card may exhibit a slightly skewed (diamond) cut.

[TanksAndSpartans]

That's great - thanks for the reply. PSA only mentions this as a miscut characteristic under ticket grading - nothing under card grading:

http://www.psacard.com/Services/PSAGradingStandards

I wonder how expensive it would be for these companies to offer a report with the grade - without that, they really leave us guessing.

[Exhibitman]

Beckett does already.

Oddly cut cards are a real dilemma, as are printing errors, blank backs, etc. I had a whole order of them refused by PSA recently. I am not sure how to grade cards like these:

[TanksAndSpartans]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

Beckett does already.

Oddly cut cards are a real dilemma, as are printing errors, blank backs, etc. I had a whole order of them refused by PSA recently. I am not sure how to grade cards like these:

I like what Beckett does too - its not a full fledged report, but having the 4 separate grades is helpful.

As far as the "dilemma", I guess that's sarcastic - but mine was a serious question - obviously I'm not talking about cards like what you posted - a diamond cut such that the card easily fits into a TPG holder is a flaw and I was just wondering how severe the penalty was for it.

[freakhappy]

Adam...Why do you think Psa came up with the qualifiers? To easily be able to grade cards like this. All of those are Psa 9(mc) all day, every day!

And then you can juke people and sell them for comparable Psa 9 prices...win-win

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by freakhappy

Adam...Why do you think Psa came up with the qualifiers? To easily be able to grade cards like this.

I thought so too but they thought otherwise. So, off to SGC.

[Leon]

I don't mind minor diamond cuts and prefer that over an off centered card.

This one has a slight diamond cut...

[BBB]

The only diamond cut I have is a cy young t206 portrait. It's pristine other than the diamond cut. Falls within size specs but was deemed cut by Psa.