Is this grading company's name "asking for it" ?

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Posted By: Brian H 

Actaully the grading of the T205s seemed reasonable. But isn't this companies name (which grades its own cards) just screaming out to be mocked ?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2763084233&category=31718

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Posted By: Bob Lemke

I think card grading is a fine fund-raising idea for the Boy Scouts of America.

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Posted By: Hankron

This situation illustrates a comical (to me) bias in the trading card hobby.

Firstly, I have no objection to sellers holdering and labelling their own cards, and I have no reason to beleive that this particular seller is not honest and fair and accurate.

To many collectors' sensibilites, if a seller sells the card in a top loader it would be 'raw.' But if the same seller puts the same card in a fancy holder with a fancy label with a three-letter acronym and assigns the same grade, the card is now longer 'raw' but 'graded' and, thus worth more.

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Posted By: Hankron

It becomes ever more comical (to me) under further examination.

Collectors will not only judge the worth of the card, but accuracy of the grade and even the authenticity, based on the style and other superficial qualities of the holder .... Realize that for this post, I am talking about the exact same seller selling the exact same card in the exact same grade, but in different holders.

Some essential qualities that all collectors look at when judging a graded card.

Style of holder: PSA-style = top dollar. Screws in corners = less legitimate (How many of us have chastised a grader becaude it used a screw down?). Top loader of course is no good.

Style of sticker: PSA-style = top dollar. Oval shaped or abnormal shape = less desirable. Certainly has to be pasted on and not scotch taped on.

Bar code, serial number: Of course any legitimate grader has to use a bar code and serial number.

Name: Three letter acronym = top dollar (PSA, SGC, GAI, BGS). 'Bob & Jenny Grading Service' or 'Hoboken Cards" can be as legitimate, and their grades are neccesarilly suspect.

An econonmist/socialogist could do an interesting study to see how much collectors pay for these and other non-card qualities. For example, for a $200 card, $50 of that is for the style of holder and sticker, $3 for bar code, $5 for serial number and $20 for company's acronym.

Folks like PRO are more than well aware that people pay top dollar for these types of qualities. In fact, that's how they make their livings.

If the collector was less shallow, just think what kind of item he could buy with the money he or she saved at the end of the year: a T205 Christy Mathewson? A sharp Mickey Mantle autoraphed bat with PSA/DNA LOA? For the weekend spenders, perhaps fancy dinner with wife?

I don't know about anyone else, buy you can keep the bar codes and I'll take the Mantle bat.

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Posted By: Kevin Cummings

Come on, Brian. The name could be worse - like the law firm in the old Three Stooges films "Dewey, Cheatham and Howe."

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Posted By: warshawlaw

At the dawn of hobby time, some dealers used to put their wares into holders with labels on them. You could have the labels custom printed with name and address, and anything else you wanted. Some famous collectors even stamped their names onto the bacls of their cards. It was seen as provenance and advertising. I recall seeing cards re-sold with attribution. Of course, we are talking small $$ here.