Q regarding MK within PSA grading

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Posted By: wfeola

I have to admit....I have caught the bug. I won my first T206 last night on ebay and I know it won't be the last. Since I sold my rare backs just before christmas I have been hooked on both searching for T206's on ebay and reading all of your posts here.

I purchased a Billy Maloney PSA 3 MK.

I know the MK refers to "marks" which the seller has stated as being pencil marks on the back of the card, however PSA is unclear as to what that means.

This is what they say:

MK (Marks)
Type of qualifier. The card exhibits marks caused by pen, pencil, or some other type of ink and the presence of the mark or marks causes the card to fall below the minimum standard for the grade.

Qualifier
In some cases, a card will be designated with a qualifier. A "qualified" card is a card that meets all the criteria for a particular grade, but fails the standard in one area. For example, a card which exhibits all the qualities of a NM-MT 8, but is 90/10 centered left to right, will receive a grade of NM-MT 8oc. The "OC" stands for off-center. Here is a brief list of qualifiers: OC (Off-center), ST (stain), PD (Print Defect), OF (Out of Focus), and MK (Marks).


So is this card not a true PSA 3? If it is not a true 3, then why would they grade it as such.

Is it smart to include these in your collection....or are they worthless?

I'm confused.

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Posted By: peter

From what I believe, a psa 3 mk is a psa 3 graded card, but with a mark. If you were to send it to sgc, it would be a 2. I guess to put it in easier words, its a 3 grade with a defect, but other grading companies would grade it lower.

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Posted By: Glenn

What it means, according to PSA, is that the card has been marked (with pencil or pen or whatever) but that if it hadn't been marked it would have received a 3. So basically, in terms of both appearance and dollar value, it isn't a real 3. In practice, cards with a qualifier such as this usually sell for slightly less than a card one grade lower without the qualifier -- as it is widely believed (and probably correct) that if the card was good enough to get the grade of "PSA 2" then they wouldn't have given it the grade of "PSA 3(MK)".

The system is useful mainly for higher condition cards that have one major flaw, e.g., being extremely off-center. If you have a card that is otherwise NM-MT in every way, but only meets the centering standard for a PSA 2, they can give the card a "PSA 8(OC)" rather than being obligated by their published grading criteria to call it a "PSA 2". I have at least one sharp card graded by SGC which only received a 3 simply because of a centering problem; if I crossed it over to PSA it would probably come back as a "PSA 6(OC)".

The PSA qualifier system is, however, applied incorrectly. If they used it as they claim to, there would be such thing as a PSA 10 with a qualifier but not a PSA 1 with a qualifier, but exactly the opposite is true. So if you take a card that's good enough to get a PSA 10 and put a drop of ink on it, leaving it otherwise identical to its previous state, they won't give it a PSA 10(MK), they'll give it a PSA 9(MK) or worse every time. But on the other end, they do sometimes put qualifiers on 1's, so there are cards floating around in the population graded "PSA 1(MK)" indicating that the card would have been in poor condition except that somebody wrote on it, and frankly that's just ridiculous.

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Posted By: Steve

"PSA 1(MK)" indicating that the card would have been in poor condition except that somebody wrote on it, and frankly that's just ridiculous.


With all due respect it is not indicating that the card would have been a 1 it is stating that the card is a 1 and has a mark on it. Buying on the internet has become almost the norm and that qualifier tells prospective buyers that the card has been marked. Some sellers may not be so inclined to mention that fact.


as for the 10 ... a card can't be a 10 and have a qualifier cuz a 10 is supposed to be perfect in every way. gem mint.

this is why they would give a card that otherwise could be a 10 the 9 OC or PD or whatever grade.


To answer the original question as to if the card is worthless. It all depends on the card. A hi dollar vintage card still retains value. A low dollar modern card does not. The answer lies somewhere in between. The mark in this case is on the back, not scribbled across the players face.


As for the qualifiers and the registry, 2 pts are deducted from the grade. In lower grades one is deducted, so in this case your t206 psa 3 mk would grade as a 2 if you were to register it.


The qualifier system has its pro's and con's just like the entire grading industry.

Steve