Posted By:
barrysloateOkay, I've said it before and I'll say it one more time.
I think the grading services should stop grading cards and spend all their time authenticating. I think their ability to detect alterations, trimming, and counterfeiting is a monumental contribution to the hobby. But I think their system of grading is a joke.
Any collector/dealer with a little experience can learn to grade his own material. Everyone would learn how to do it right because overgraders would soon find themselves out of business. Collectors would quickly recognize who the good graders are and who are the bad ones.
It would also end the practice of endless resubmissions, the influence that major submitters have on the final grade (don't tell me it doesn't happen), and it would likely do away with the registry, the single greatest cause of runaway prices.
Collectors would still have all the protection they need to combat the scoundrels in the industry, and would learn a valuable skill themselves. And prices would probably level off a bit and the hobby would be more fun again.