While I do think Beckett is a little tougher on vintage (same with SGC), I dont think thats the real issue which is- IS PSA fair on the cards of their competitors when submitted for crossover?
IMO no they are not, I base this on my
limited experience of submitting SGC and BVG cards to them for crossover. When I first started to cross cards I always sent them in the slabs as I felt it was too great a risk to crack. Well as you can guess my success ratio sucked bad, less than 25%. After a few of these tries (about 50 cards) and after reading the CU boards back in the day, I decided to crack 20 of the ones that failed and resubmit. I was amazed at the results, 16 crossed with 4 upgrades, with only 4 not crossing at equal grades. So an 80% success rate on cards that had all failed to cross already. That was the last time I sent any crossovers to PSA. I also dont think I am the only one who feels that way as its pretty much been the norm on CU for years.
What I saw at the national was a line of dealers with cards getting reviews or crossovers on big dollar cards, i even saw this a lot at the SGC booth. I would bet some dealers have stacks of cards they bring in every show for a chance at a bump or crossover as they are well aware when the spread between a grade or between grading companies is so big its worth it to keep trying.
I know a coin dealer who dabbles in cards and he told me he once submitted a coin 23 times to PCGS for review at over $200 a pop, when he finally hit the upgrade his 4k coin became a 30k one.
|