Quote:
Originally Posted by 68Hawk
Yup, but I think the guys in this grading business are on a hiding to nothing when you won't even get agreement if you put 10-20 of the most highly regarded hobbyists and ask them their opinion on a card's alteration.
Most would actually just pass on the measure of whether a card has been altered, but better yet for a real laugh tell them they have to put up 20K to back their opinion.
GUARANTEE none would be willing to do so, especially if you already HAD the truth in hand and were just taking a straw poll.
But they WOULD give opinion on condition, as that is plenty subjective enough they know they can't be 'wrong'.
I accept I'm participating in a flawed concept to start with, and enjoy it for that. I will take and mostly accept that grading opinion on all the matters they're asked to consider, and from that point the item 'becomes' what it is opined to be. Just as many paintings become true 'in the hand of' original pieces of work after an opinion by an art expert, regardless of whether that judgement is uniformly accepted across the art histoians who view it. The opinion of certain experts is accepted and the art world moves on, even though the truth may lie lost in the years of history.
If we were to flip to my concept for grading, which I think is less flawed, of course I'd be just as happy.
But If you want something that is absolute, then buying peoples assessments of alteration on 1-140 year old pieces of paper should NOT be your game.
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Part of the problem is all of the outright and obvious mistakes the TPGs make. Many are laughable and some almost seem like favorable grades for certain submitters. I am sure I can tell a real vs a fake card as well as most graders. I don't use grade much any longer because of it. That said, if it's a higher end card it has to be graded to bring the real value. It's a conundrum.
As to the subject it will be very interesting to see the final outcome of the FBI's efforts. Hopefully some crooked folks go to jail as they did before.
These all have Hand Cut on their SGC flips and none are hand cut. Go figure. They all came out of a pack I still have. Grading is a crapshoot at best. I hope the new company starting up is better than what we have now.
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