Strip Card Grading, Authentic vs. Low Grade
 

I am thinking about sending in my W560 Hornsby strip card to SGC to have it slabbed. It is in great shape except for a medium crease across the middle. SGC says they'll grade strip cards with a number grade but I am wondering if it would be better to just get the "A". The highest it will get is probably a 40 because of the crease.

With the strip cards, where the "authentic" grade is common because of the hand-cutting, is an "authentic" grade better than a low grade? What do you think?

The reason they give out the authentic grade is because most stip cards are cut poorly. IMO it would be a poor choice to have a card that may grade out a 40 labeled only authentic. If it was not cut well it may only be authentic anyway, however with all strip cards just about everyone would prefer a number grade over authentic.

James G

Im my opinion, ALL strip cards should ONLY be graded "A" Authentic.

They were all handcut not machine cut so how the heck can you grade that (look for alterations on edges, ie trimmed), the whole card is trimmed from its original Factory Cut size (ie strip or sheet).

But PSA/SGC etc. dropped the ball years ago and chose to give some number grades and other not... Ive seen cards (ie SGC98 W513s), that were obviously recently cut from a sheet or cleaned up, no way in heck it was cut with perfect 90 deg corners and straight as an arrow edges in mid 1920s and survived razor sharp all these years.

But to answer you question a SGC40 will sell better than a "A" card because collectors are naturally turned off "by "A" cards... even though there was nothing altered on the card. Not all W cards were handcut,many were machine cut... ie W502, W503, W554, W574, W575-2, etc.