TPG - The One True Way

[68Hawk]

This is how I see the repair happening. The Fix. The Antidote.

TPG should become a report, not an evaluation of certain criteria that ends in a grade.

The report should include many of the things already opined upon, but would now be available only as a report on the website. On the slab itself, the only 'assertion' listed would be the Card Issue and Player number, the Player's name, Authentic Unaltered, or Authentic Altered, and the card serial number to be available to search on the TPG's site.

The Report would include:
A high res image of the card front and back.
The issue, Player name, card number.
The designation Authentic Unaltered, or Authentic Altered. Reprints would no longer be 'graded' or given a Report or slabbed.
Measurement of the card as well as standard for the issue tolerances.
Centering - would now include the actual left to right / top to bottom percentages, front and back.
Corners - Percentage missing from square of each corner.
Edges - Number of nicks/flaws to edges.
Surface - Number of imperfections and 'wear' to the surface, front and back.
Descriptors could include creases, wrinkles, pin holes, missing paper, dents, scratches, gloss or no gloss, etc.
Registration - I would think 'Excellent', 'Good', and 'Poor' would suffice as descriptors.

Perhaps there are other important card identifiers I'm missing, those could be included in the Report.

The report would cost $100 - $150 to have created for each card regardless of value/sales results.
The real market value would then be determined by the buying public based on each cards individual eye appeal combined with the 'Report'.
A '3' in todays TPG parlance might be worth '6' money based on the attributes most desired by a collector on any given day and with that opportunity to purchase. Let the value be truly decided by the buyer, not a Flip number.

If an existing or new TPG were willing to enter this program giving high level hobby evaluations, I believe they could become the go-to and industry standard within a few years for important collectable cards.
They would need to announce they were suspending ALL previous evaluations and grading estimations in an effort to bring true Expert opinion and transparent inspection to our Hobby.

Will never happen of course, but a commitment from real hobby experts to this evaluation Report could eventually weed out most of the mistakes, forgeries, alterations etc that have befuddled card collecting.
Sure, in the end some trimmed cards that fall within spec size and don't exhibit 'fresh' cuts might still get an Authentic Unaltered Report, but the number would be fractional of what now runs around in holders.
And Blowout could still fulfill some of the excellent work they already do by passing along some of their knowledge of a cards history to the Report makers.

Personally I'd be thrilled with this new kind of set up. I buy my cards for how they appeal to me and sometimes that means paying nr-mint money coz centering or corners are important for that particular issue, and sometimes a poor 1 serves me just fine. I can never quite work out or explain why it is that way for me, but it has guided my collection strongly.

I think it would work well for the Hobby too.

[doug.goodman]

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha...

No offense intended.

[68Hawk]

Originally Posted by doug.goodman

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha...

No offense intended.

None taken.

[JollyElm]

Sorry, I just had to....

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