The illusion of an objective standard psa, sgc, bvg

[glchen]

Originally Posted by AGuinness

They are human, but my expectation is that they are completely accurate when it comes to a card being authentic - that is the primary and most important job they have to do. And that includes correctly identifying the card's basic attributes (set, etc. - that thread with the 68 Ryan labelled as a Venezuelan when it is so obviously NOT is truly embarrassing).

The grade part is opinion within the framework of the grading system the company has created. As long as they stick to that framework, I'll have an idea as to what they think the grade indicates, but that also does include some margin of error and room for disagreement.

They are accurate in that they provide you a guarantee. If you buy a PSA graded card, and it turns out the card inside is not authentic, PSA will reimburse you for the price you paid for the card. This is the rationale that TPG's charge higher grading fees for cards with higher declared values: they are on the hook for more if they are wrong.

They will similarly reimburse you if they are proven to have given a card a higher, incorrect grade. This point is usually much harder to prove as if you say will, this similar card that looks the same received a lower grade from you, the TPG will most likely still refuse to reimburse you. It has to be very, very obvious that the card is a misgrade. Saying all of that, I personally have gotten reimbursed before, so the system works in many cases.

You most likely will not get this kind of guarantee from a dealer or auction house that you purchase a raw card from.

Edit: if a TPG mis-labels a card like in the example above, they're not going to reimburse you for that. They will just give you a free reholder to correct the card designation on the flip.