Mastro and FBI

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Posted By: Corey R. Shanus

First, to clarify, I'm talking here about an instance where the card doesn't cross over because of concerns the card is altered, not because the 8 should be a 7. My view is that in such an instance (i.e., a split decision among the grading companies) it could sell for much less than it would had the cross-over rejection not been disclosed. We can argue as to how much less, but I firmly believe it will be a material reduction, especially if the card received its original numerical grade from PSA, say, ten years ago and was only recently rejected by SGC.

In regard to your other point that there is never an assurance that another grading company would see the card the same way, on that one I agree. But it's all a probability game. It's one thing to talk about the risk abstractly, quite another to say it already happened and it is now a known fact that other experts believe the card to be altered. The latter instance in my view to the reasonable buyer would be regarded as material information.

Peter, if you owned an auction company and there is documentary evidence that a card's grading history has been provided to you, would you make the disclosure? Let's assume we are talking about a PSA 8 Plank originally slabbed in 1998 and only last year rejected by SGC as being altered?