Banned In The USA, I Was Banned In The USA

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Posted By: Jeff Obermeyer

While I will grant you that some dealers seem to grade higher than others (and I've had similar experiences with Lipset), we all need to remember something - grading is subjective!

Just because PSA or SGC or whoever has their own set grading standard, doesn't make it "right". For years most collectors based their grading on the descriptions that were found in either the Beckett or SCD annuals, and that was OK. It still left a little room for disagreement - I think it's VG+, you think it's EX. Now we've got all these "professional" graders telling us what grade our cards are... well, guess what? I don't always agree with their grades either.

There are 10 different grades (not counting qualifiers) that PSA will give a card, and 6 of those are for grades EX and above. Doesn't really seem to leave a lot of room for variance with anything that's not EX or better, does it?

I guess what I'm getting at here is that just because a dealer lists his card as EX doesn't necessarily mean that's the way PSA or SGC is going to see it. There is no grading "standard" in the hobby, regardless of what you may think. I'm not talking about blantantly overgraded cards here, just honest differences of opinion...

Jeff