[ambrsa]

I also think grading in  general is kind of ruining the hobby. Too many people are buying raw cards or cracking cards to resubmit to flip cards. I have watched a few videos on a youtube channel that frequently does this. I have also seen them crack cards that graded low clean them and put stuff on them and submit to PSA to get a 10. So in the end you have to wonder what the hobby has  become.  I think PSA buying SGC is bad because now PSA will essentially control the market. Now you have to wonder what is going to happen the value of SGC graded cards.

[rjcj2017]

Agreed 1,000 percent.

It's so bad now that I have to look extra carefully at a raw card on DBay because I just assume there's something wrong with it.

These guys automatically rule out any card as "trash" if, in their esteemed opinion, the card won't "gem" (barf)

My one and only experience with grading - other than a Trout IP auto getting rejected for authenticity at one company and flying through as authentic at another company - came back in 2016 when I won a $30 certificate toward a BGS grading via a random drawing.

I had a very flimsy Panini Instant card of Kevin Durant in his new Warriors uniform that I wanted to get encapulated just to protect it.

It had a noticeable white speck against a red border on the bottom right of the front of the card, soi I assumed it wouldn't get higher than a 7.5 or an 8, which was fine because I wasn't plannning on selling or trading it.

Turns out ... it got a 9.5, Gem Mint, with a 9 sub for the corners.

(Not picking on Beckett here ... I really appreciated the gift and it was fun to get the card back in the mail)

Point being, had I been as amoral as most of these clowns, I could have sold the card as a "9.5 Gem Mint" Durant, because technically it was.

Had I been the buyer and just trusted the grade on the card and not actually looked at the card itself - gasp - I would have been pissed if I received that card with the corner like that.

The whole thing, to me, is just shenanigans. Unless they come up with an AI program to objectively grade cards and don't keep doing all of the other things I keep hearing rumors about - guaranteed minimum grades for bulk orders, preferred services and grades for online case breakers, etc. - I'm a hard pass.

To each his own, I see why some folks are into graded cards, it's just not for me.