[BooneDaisy]

I would really appreciate some insight into this question as I am pretty frustrated with Beckett.  Don't get me started on turnaround times or pricing so I am going to limit this question to grading.

I have two cards in the last year that were sent for grading.  One came back as Altered and the other was a 5.  Both cards are clean with sharp edges and not scuffs or scratches.  I had an ex-Beckett grader who now owns a shop in Tennessee look at both of these cards and he says he can't find the "alteration" and the one graded a 5 is just outrageous.  It takes a bit of time, money and patience to get these cards graded.  It really sucks to get them back without any details or comments on why they were graded the way they were.  And Beckett doesn't have a method of disputing such an obvious error.  I get that this would be opening a pandora's box of issues, but I am really frustrated with what I can clearly see is an error and no accountability with Beckett.  Any thoughts?

[y2hood]

Probably not. The best I can suggest, as a fellow graded collector, is to take some high resolution scans and share them here. I appreciate your friend's credentials, but short of busting it out of the slab, some problems cannot be detected just looking at it in the case. I've found this out the hard way MANY times.

(and honestly, I have a card right now on my desk that you can't see the damage on any high resolution scan and it takes the collector turning it at an angle in the right light to see it)

[jeffv96masters]

While there is no way to "dispute" final grades , you won't like the work around method / explanation
I just had an Ichiro rookie card grade a 5.5 that 3 different people including myself couldn't see issues

Since disputes are not allowed on the final grade I decided to do a work around
I paid for a GCR ( Graded Card Review) and also sent extra $$ for a re-slab.

By paying the GCR fee, if it bumped = its paid for the review, if it doesn't bump I get the white slip back with marks where the issue is located explaining why the review wasn't upgraded. Basically- paid for the formal Review service / explanation. I also sent $8 for a re-slab . Turned out to be a minor surface flaw that affected just the very top of the back surface that could only be seen at a very specific angle and even then only under the right lighting. An expensive lesson but a reminder that not everything can be seen easily.

So eating the review fee wasn't nice but at least its got a shiny new slab. And its still an Ichiro rookie.
I'd think long and hard about value versus time/investment in getting the explanation.

If its a couple hundred difference- worth a GCR review
If not- sigh- personal choice. I dont like a card I sell and take a loss- lesson learned.

jeff

[y2hood]

To the point of having to hold it at a certain angle to see it, I have to question the affect the flaw has on "eye appeal" at that point.

BGS doesn't let us peek behind the curtain, but one of their competitors did so via Youtube over the summer. And while I appreciated the insight, the fact that they used a special machine to see creases that aren't otherwise visible to the naked eye put me in a weird mood, collector wise. Why, yes, the Mantle in their example had a crease under the blacklight. But in the collector's hand, in the slab, there was no crease. I was the difference of an entire grade or so, a crease you couldn't see without a special machine.

I'm ride or die with my grading, but THAT had me put my hands on my hips. Mod Jeff's example has me in the same mindset. Angled flaw = 5.5 ? Tough crowd in them grading rooms.

(pay no attention to my registry full of 9.5s)