Posted By:
Eric BrehmI agree with Scot; as I said before, card grade numbers should be viewed only as labels for subjective condition qualities, not as literal numbers to be manipulated in a traditional mathematical sense.
But in terms of Set Registry arithmetic, and the effect of the new grading system on the set rankings (for those who care about such things), it does make sense for less than 50% of cards that originally received whole grades under the old system to get a half grade bump.
Example: suppose for the sake of argument there is a set where all cards in the set have equal weight (i.e. they are equally scarce/valuable).
Guy A has 100% PSA 8's with a set rating of 8.00
Guy B has 67% PSA 8's and 33% PSA 9's with a set rating of 8.33
Suppose Guy A re-submits all of his 8's for review. What is the effect on his set ranking as a function of the percentage of his cards that receive the bump?
If Guy A received the bump from 8 to 8.5 on half of his cards, his set rating would jump from 8.0 to 8.5, and he would pass Guy B's 8.33 score in the ranking.
But if Guy A only received the half grade bump on 10% of his cards, his set rating would only increase from 8.00 to 8.05 (.90 X 8.0 + .10 X 8.5 = 8.05). He would still trail Guy B in the rankings. If he wants to catch Guy B, he is going to have to buy some PSA 9's.
That is probably the way it is going to play out, so those who fear that they will be compelled to resubmit their cards in order to retain their current place in the Set Registry rankings should probably not worry about it. And similarly those who think they might have an opportunity to move up significantly in the standings will probably be wasting time and money if they try to accomplish that by re-submitting their cards for review.