Posted By:
Cobby33"And while graded cards certainly has had its share of evils, favoritism and corruption, the fact is most of us would agree that it provides a great protection against those that would sell us trimmed cards."
Ergo- "Auth" or "Altered" grades. Numerical grades, as pointed out, are way too subjective, unregulated and the product of favoritism.
The grades I just got back on a bunch of 75 Topps Minis, which I pulled from an unopened box, is proof positive of this. Half of them had "ST" qualifiers and only one of them was a top or bottom card. Most of the others had ridiculously-low grades. Incredible.