Ken Kendricks collection
 

What does this tell a lot of us bottom feeders? Unless you had these cards for a long time, you aint gonna see one in your collection unless it's a low grade card.

Nice collection, though.

Absolutely beautiful cards. Now if only his baseball team was as pleasing to the eye.

For anybody that hasn't seen this video, it shows the cards in extreme close up detail. To be honest I would be shocked if the 52 mantle is over an 8 or 9 with todays standards. The corners have visible wear, particularly top left and the surface has print defects. I actually like seeing some kind of wear it makes the card to me seem genuine and not altered. I'd love to see a tape measure over all of his psa 10 cards just out of curiosity sake.

Though I would like to say this, in a world of understanding these would all be 10s. The way grading has gone is comical, and I hate to rehash it. But old grading really was the correct version, vgex 4s looked like vgex cards. 6s looked like ex+ cards. Now a days 3s look like near mint 9s and 1s can be torn in half to looking like 8s. You see people with old label 5s and 6s that have a soft corner or 2, or whatever but the card is still easily in the ex range and people say those aren't 5s or 6s today, yet the card would fit any collections ex binder without a single blink. That same card people are happy to get a 2 on today because one corner is slightly soft. It is incomprehensible.

Rant over. I could type about it forever.


https://youtu.be/wVGrUMyZSB4

The age old problem of defining a true standard on paper vs. what is happening out there in reality in grading is PSA's bread and butter. What is "slight" surface wear, or a "minor" printing blemish in reality to you? Is it the same thing as it means to me, or to someone who holds a job as a "professional" grader?

The rub here of course is that in reality, PSA, SGC, Beckett, whomever else can change the standards over time - grade tougher or easier - without ever having to change the detailed language on their professed standards that are listed on their websites. The actual differences are too subtle to be called out with any degree of accuracy to say that oh, well the standard in writing is just wrong now...

With the "mature" graders at this point, I think we have been through cycles of all levels of severity with each. Whether they want to admit it or not.