Post-War PSA Grading

[Zach Wheat]

I recently started grading my cards. Most of my cards are pre-war. I had little experience with grading services prior and really don't want this to degenerate into a grading company bashing thread.

Regarding some post-war cards, there appeared to be several cards that appeared to be consistently more harshly graded. I started digging and noted the population reports show grading scarcities for these exact same cards ('52 Bartirome, '80 Henderson are two). In fact, Vintage Card Curators made a video on the grading scarcity anomaly regarding the 1980 Topps Rickey Henderson.

Is this just me or does anyone else feel that grading companie(s) may be creating "high grade" scarcities for certain cards? I bet Jolly Elm has a word for this....

[BobC]

Originally Posted by Zach Wheat

I recently started grading my cards. Most of my cards are pre-war. I had little experience with grading services prior and really don't want this to degenerate into a grading company bashing thread.

Regarding some post-war cards, there appeared to be several cards that appeared to be consistently more harshly graded. I started digging and noted the population reports show grading scarcities for these exact same cards ('52 Bartirome, '80 Henderson are two). In fact, Vintage Card Curators made a video on the grading scarcity anomaly regarding the 1980 Topps Rickey Henderson.

Is this just me or does anyone else feel that grading companie(s) may be creating scarcities for certain cards? I bet Jolly Elm has a word for this....

Don't know about the Henderson cards, but for the '52 Bartirome cards there is an alleged person that is/was going after and hoarding just those cards from the '52 Topps set, and therefore supposedly responsible for the dearth of them appearing for sale as opposed to similar hi-number series cards from that set. And is also supposedly why '52 Topps Bartirome cards typically go for higher prices than similar hi-number series commons.

That wouldn't seem to be a plausible explanation for '80 Henderson cards though as I don't believe they were SP'd, Topps cards were no longer being issued in series after 1973, and I'd never heard stories of anyone trying to hoard them.

[steve B]

I don't think they're deliberately holding back.

Most sets of that era have worse than expected centering etc. so very high grades won't always be common.
It may seem out of the ordinary, but when you think about who would be sending in commons from a very common set, they're probably very good at matching up their grading with PSA and only sending in the very best ones. With a popular card Like Henderson, anyone with a somewhat nice one will send it in hoping for a big grade. So many that aren't fantastic get graded.

If I remember correctly, the card is susceptible to tilted cuts. Or probably more accurately it was on the sheet slightly tilted so when it's cut properly the image portion is tilted in relation to the edges.

Looking at it another way
Consider the pricing. They charge more for more expensive cards, and a Henderson rookie could easily be sent in valued low with an expectation of an upcharge if it graded high.
8- 290
9- 2425
10- 125,250

8s probably fit well under one of their limits, so you'd expect if they were playing with the population, they'd do more 9s and the occasional 10 and upcharge.

Compare to a more typical card Mike Schmidt
8- 20
9-40
10- 375

All fit under a limit, so no potential for playing with the population.

With no real financial benefit to them from withholding 9s and 10s I'm not seeing why they'd do that.
I suppose long term, they might figure that having fewer of a popular card in a 10 would lead to more cards being sent in, but that's a bit of a stretch.

[steve B]

Forgot to mention those prices are from the PSA website, and probably are about what they'd use to figure an upcharge.

[JollyElm]

You bet your sweet bippy I have something for this situation. It will be part of my latest trilogy of 'New Collectorisms.'

If you haven't checked it out yet, go to post #50 to see Part 1:
https://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=293235

Here's a sneak preview of Part 2:

Uppercrushment (also Starfoul)
The undeniable existence of a two-tiered grading system, wherein if you submit a valuable Hall of Famer and a common that are both in the exact same shape, the HOF’er will undoubtedly come back with a lower number on its slab than the nobody.

See also: Dearth Grader - the villainous way TPGs seem to purposely and consistently give lower, harsher grades to certain specific cards, creating a false scarcity of high grade examples.

[Kutcher55]

There’s little question PSA has played games on high profile cards like the Henderson RC, Eddie Murray RC and others from that era. Vintage Card Curator has demonstrated the statistical anomalies associated with these cards by showing the ratio of 10s related to 9s as compared to other cards from the same set. PSA 10s of these cards represent some of the most overvalued cards in the hobby. People who spend for cards like these are buying the grade and not the card. $125k for a Henderson RC is complete insanity - same goes for whatever a PSA 10 Jordan RC is selling for these days not that I would know.

[Eric72]

Originally Posted by Zach Wheat

...Is this just me or does anyone else feel that grading companie(s) may be creating "high grade" scarcities for certain cards...

Personally, yes, I feel that grading companies are creating "high grade" scarcities. Whether they purposefully set out to do so is another question entirely.

It's somewhat likely that particular cards draw a higher degree of scrutiny from the graders. In some cases, the value difference between a 9 and 10 is tens of thousands of dollars. If you were the grader, would you take a little extra time to make sure the grade was correct?