gai pack grading

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Posted By: ali_lapoint

i know gai drops the ball when it comes to identifying cigarette packs accurately. but how are they overall when it comes to grading packs? i have some unopened vintage packs that i have been thinking about having graded just to keep them in something that is air tight and sealed. this would also help to curb the ever mounting temptation to open them. have any of you had unopened packs graded by gai before? what kind of criteria do they measure the packs against? i know rips and tears would be issues, but beyond that i'm having a hard time telling what they judge the packs on. will an unripped or torn pack automatically get a 7 or 8?

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Posted By: John Moran

PSA is grading packs now, use them only. FYI, Steve Hart is the grader.

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Posted By: ali_lapoint

i'm not familiar with steve hart. could you tell me a little about him?

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Posted By: CT Dean

Actually Steve does NOT do the grading, he only authenticates the packs are original and untampered with, once that is done it is on to PSA for actual grading and slabbing. Hope this helps.

My 33 Goudey Set

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Posted By: davidcycleback

I'm no wax pack expert, but when they were the only wax pack graders on the block, GAI had a good reputation.

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Posted By: ali_lapoint

thats my understanding too. i have some real tough topps packs from the 1950s i want to get graded and naturally thought of GAI. how can you tell if a pack has been tampered with? now i'm worried.

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Posted By: Jon Canfield

I have some rare unopened packs and all have been graded by GAI. I've never had the thought to "cross" them to PSA. Most large auction houses continue to sell packs encapsulated by GAI (just look at the current Mastro auction for example) and I believe GAI's reputation for packs to still be very high.

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For the premier online souce of information on baseball-related cigarette packs, visit http://www.baseballandtobacco.com

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Posted By: davidcycleback

Ali, again I'm no wax pack expert, but the experts look at stuff like paper consistency and pattern at point of seal, gloss at point of seal, angle of corners due to resealing, etc. If you heat reseal a wax wrapper, it can change the gloss and consistency of the wax paper. So there are technical things they look at, not just if the paper is folded up nicely or there are tears.

When it's factory folded wax paper-- the emphasis on wax paper--, changes, refolding, resealing and such can be detected by close examination and experience. The wax is sensitive to changes and can hold a record of what's happened to the wrapper.

I know one key point they look at is the angle of the edge of the pack (the edge of the thickness). Packs were factory sealed en mass and will have consistent angles. A resealed pack will often have a very different folding angle, in particularly when the resealer wasn't paying attention to that detail. One of the simple things a beginner can do is to compare the edge folding angles-- this will identify many suspect packs.

Mark "The Baseball Card Kid" Murphy, who used to be the head pack grader for GAI, has a nice color illustrated guide to wax packs, including how to judge authenticity of packs, the details of identifying resealing, etc. He goes over in better detail many of the points I mentioned above.

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Posted By: Cobby33

This is Steve Hart. He's the king of unopened material, IMO.

http://www.bbcexchange.com/catalog/

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Posted By: Jodi Birkholm

David,

I know less on this subject than you, but I can tell you that your rule doesn't always apply to O-Pee-Chee packs. Growing up in London, ON (the home of that now-defunct company), I remember buying many a wax pack coming straight out of the box that exhibited strange, unique characteristics in the flap folds. Sometimes the seal was loose on a pack purchased at a corner store. I speculate that this was due to worn out equipment (which also explains why many OPC cards were cut so jagged--they used a heated wire process to cut the sheets while they were still wet/moist, hence the sloppy-looking product. This process seemed to change after 1989.). Another interesting aspect with 1980's-90's OPC issues was the lack of wax stains; I don't think that the pressure used to seal the Canadian packs was anywhere near as great as that employed by OPC's American sister company.

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Posted By: CN

I am not saying he is an expert but I always had a problem with Mark Murphy grading packs as he was a big seller in packs. Plus one year at a White Plains Show I had 4 unoppened packs and Mark tried to rip me off on his offer so I am always leery of him. This is just one person,s opinion. CN