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Posted By: barrysloate

Paul brings up some good points and I have always felt that in some of the mid to low grades there are just so many factors to consider. A card with general wear and several creases may get the same grade as a card with a mint front but a minute amount of paper loss on the reverse. Yet these two cards look nothing alike. The only answer would be to create even more grades and more qualifiers but at some point the system would become too cumbersome. I don't know what the right answer is. For now, I guess the current system will have to do.

I do believe that in time small changes will be made in the grading system. After last night's meeting Dave Forman was kind enough to give me a ride home, so we had a chance to spend a half hour discussing the hobby. One of the things I brought up was Old Judges that have superb fronts and pristine photos, but because of a bit of paper loss they get hammered. He said one of the topics they have discussed is possibly grading the fronts independently and then adding a qualifier for the back damage. I like that idea, and while there is no guarantee it will be implemented, at least the process of grading cards is not static.