[freakhappy]

I hear what you're saying Luke and it makes sense. However, the problem at the lower end is that you run out of room for grades to drop. One card could be beat to hell and grade a PR and another card has nice appeal but has rounded corners, three creases and a stain and also grade a PR...that's why we should never buy the holder (as most everyone already knows). From the looks of your cards, the Cicotte is the only one I would argue the grade on...the other ones look accurately graded to me.

As far as the grading scale goes, I would bet that some of these graders don't even know the qualifications from grade to grade and this could play into some of the inconsistencies of grading. And with the rush that is put on them to grade quickly, I would be willing to bet that they simply wing some of the grades.

Grading is so subjective and as long as human beings are grading these cards, we can expect the roller coaster rides.