“Card Score” grading - new TPG as retail model… thoughts?
 

I found my way into a new card store in the Boston area earlier today and noticed this machine (see below) by the exit of the store.

I guess I missed this new TPG option if it’s been covered elsewhere in another thread - but apparently Card Score is an inexpensive ($15/card) new way of “partial self-serve” where you scan your card (raw or graded) and it’s uploaded and sent for review and grading by 40+ graders at Card Score, the outlier grades are thrown out and you are left with an overall score as well as sub-scores (edging, centering, corners, etc)

It’s pretty different - you don’t actually send your card in… they send you a case with the grade (not sure why I could not simply insert a lower grade card into the case - apparently there is some “fingerprint” level ability to scam proof shenanigans)

I plan to check out their web site to read more.

I was curious if others have studied this new option more closely… apparently it’s only about 2 weeks or so old in the Boston market

I hope it does give an affordable new option to authenticate and grade (or re-grade) cards. Love to hear your thoughts and predictions.

Jeff

Yes, there was an earlier thread about this before. Biggest questions are how good the authentication and grading services can be when all the graders ever see is a scan, and as you pointed out, the issues that arise from this company then sending you the components for you to then slab the card yourself. Definite concerns as to how to make sure the scanned card actually is the same one that gets slabbed, and how tamper proof can their slabs be if they let the person buying the service do the actual sealing of a card in their holder. No QC whatsoever.

When i first heard about this I thought the individual card shops these machines would go in would be some type of partner/franchisee of this new company, and anyone using this service would then leave their card with the card shop, and the card shop would then handle the actual scanning and sealing of a card in it's holder before returning it back to it's owner. Still leaves some potential QC and other issues, and would seem to be a better indicator of a card's appearance to the naked eye, as opposed to a technical grade. Not sure this would garner a lot of acceptance for the higher-end, more valuable cards, and certainly doesn't help registry people. Could catch on with some portion of the hobby community as it definitely addresses turnaround time issues and costs in getting something graded. The main question is will the hobby community as a whole accept their service, and will people actual believe and pay more for higher graded examples of their cards as opposed to those graded by other TPGs or kept and sold raw. Have to wait and see.

It's not useless, but it's also definitely not ideal. I think the pricepoint is way off though for the value add this brings. If I were them, I would probably do away with sending out self slabs or something like that, which surely adds a lot to the cost, and instead send out digital images of the card with their grades on top or something like that. Then you can use that image in your listings. It's basically like a digital graded card review to me. But as an actual slab? I just think that's a mistake. They could probably cut the price point in half if they just kept everything digital.

The real issue though is similar to many of my critiques in the other thread about AI grading. There's just too many flaws that can't be captured in a scan. Surface issues rarely show up in scans, especially with modern glossy cards, and even significant creases/wrinkles can be hidden. Sure, you can see corners and centering, and fair portion of edge issues, but they're just going to become a magnet for people trying to sell cards with surface flaws because they'll get gem mint grades on cards that PSA would give 7s and 8s or even 3s in some cases. That's a big problem for them, and it won't take long for the community to catch on to this.

However, as I mentioned above, it's not entirely useless. I'd rather have their opinion than that of some random guy on eBay, but I'd also trust my own eyes than theirs anyhow. I'm pretty well tuned to how PSA and SGC are going to grade a card, so I don't have much use for them. But as a competitor to the other TPGs? No, not a chance. But as a different type of service that some people find value in? Perhaps.