Should more vintage cards be graded just as Authentic?

[Alyndara]

Having read a few posts about buying the card and not the slab, and seeing cards fetching a premium for having 'eye appeal' I am left wondering - should more vintage cards just be graded as authentic?

I look for graded cards primarily for 2 reasons. One is authenticity, I know it's authentic and shouldn't be trimmed or colored or any other foolishness. The second however, is to minimize the haggling over subjective criteria. While I understand that a perfectly centered PSA 3 should demand a premium over a non-centered example, I don't think it should warrant the price of grades above it. I feel that when people grade cards with a number, they are hoping for the best possible outcome, and only bring up 'eye appeal' when they didn't get the grade they felt it deserved. I have yet to see someone selling a PSA 5 as 'not very appealing so I am only asking PSA 3 prices'

I know there are a good number of raw vintage collectors out there, I am wondering if authentic only grading would be something that appeals to them, or if the added cost and inability to handle the cards would remove enjoyment.

I would love to hear thoughts on this, thanks!

[frenchquarter]

SGC has been doing this for years. There is a box that you can check on the submission form that allows SGC to give an authentic grade to a card if it doesn't merit a number grade. I have used it many times.

[Empty77]

Originally Posted by frenchquarter

SGC has been doing this for years. There is a box that you can check on the submission form that allows SGC to give an authentic grade to a card if it doesn't merit a number grade. I have used it many times.

PSA has an "A" option too, but I think what the OP is saying is: suppose more customers requested "A" only, even for cards that otherwise would merit a letter grade.

Answering this: while it's something I'd be interested in, it's only due to a slight neuroticism about having things match, and so I do not prefer having 3, 4, and 5. To that end I'd be happy with a run of all A's. But I expect that's a minority.

Perhaps a problem with this scenario is if A holders haven't always distinguished between a tampered authentic, and just an A by choice?---and not knowing would be a big difference in purchasing/collecting.

[mjohnatgt]

Very few collectors would prefer an Auth (which can still be trimmed/altered) over a number grade. Look up the PSA Set Registry for a solid reason why, but also for graded card prices.

[Alyndara]

I did see on PSA's web site that they are free to leave off any qualifiers on an 'A' grade if they feel it won't fit, and since any mistake would be deemed 'clerical' and not covered by their guarantee, it seems that PSA authentic is not the way to go.

[discodanman45]

SGC does it the right way. They will put minimum size not met, color added, and evidence of trimming on the slab below the A grade. That being said, grading transparency is not what collectors universe wants and why they are trying their best to kill of that brand.

[jtclockwork]

No, I prefer a grade, even if poor. If there was a discount in submission price for authentication only, I might consider it on some beaters, but there's no point for me at full price.

[BlowoutBuzz]

Part of the problem here for vintage is that the time it would take to say "yep, it's real and not altered" after a glance at details is likely close to the same as grading it. So they can't reasonably go cheaper.

[inaka]

SGC definitely does it right, I just wish they didn't deviate from their original label as much. The word "AUTHENTIC" is now being printed in full on the flip, and much smaller, and the design doesn't look well thought out to me.

As a graphics guy, I just dug through my old emails, and the day after Peter announced the new "Authentic" label in July of 2022, I emailed SGC with a label suggestion that would have kept a more consistent look.

A better design (to me) would have been to keep the large "A" designation for "Authentic" and then if it was Trimmed, Colored, Altered, etc., they could have used the small hexagon "dot" to the right to just have a small "T", "C", etc. for "Trimmed", "Colored", etc. I made a really crude mockup and emailed them my idea, something like this:



They wrote back saying they were going to overhaul the label down the road, and they would take this into consideration. That was until Collector's Universe bought SGC and then halted all progress/advancements.

[jchcollins]

I understand the sentiment, but the ship on the 1-10 grading scale sailed a very long time ago.

While there are certainly still many problems with grading, PSA and the other hangers-on companies are not going to want to go backwards to a scale with less specificity and more subjectivity. At least with the current scale, you can buy a card sight-unseen (i.e. online) and know reasonably what to expect with a PSA 5 in a vintage card over say, a 2. To me this is the real helpfulness of grading. I might want a 5-6 range card in something, to be sure I'm not getting a card that's creased. How are you going to do this if "A" is the only option? This would take us back to the days of having to see everything in person. Not to mention the fact that for many today who are new to the hobby - they have no idea how to actually grade cards themselves, and rely on PSA to inform them of everything. This to me is what we have really lost in the 21st century, vs. say when I got into the hobby in 1986. Back then, most collectors who had been doing it for awhile knew the difference between a G card vs. an EX card vs. a NM card. You can largely forget about that today.

[rnocards]

Originally Posted by Alyndara

Having read a few posts about buying the card and not the slab, and seeing cards fetching a premium for having 'eye appeal' I am left wondering - should more vintage cards just be graded as authentic?

I look for graded cards primarily for 2 reasons. One is authenticity, I know it's authentic and shouldn't be trimmed or colored or any other foolishness. The second however, is to minimize the haggling over subjective criteria. While I understand that a perfectly centered PSA 3 should demand a premium over a non-centered example, I don't think it should warrant the price of grades above it. I feel that when people grade cards with a number, they are hoping for the best possible outcome, and only bring up 'eye appeal' when they didn't get the grade they felt it deserved. I have yet to see someone selling a PSA 5 as 'not very appealing so I am only asking PSA 3 prices'

I know there are a good number of raw vintage collectors out there, I am wondering if authentic only grading would be something that appeals to them, or if the added cost and inability to handle the cards would remove enjoyment.

I would love to hear thoughts on this, thanks!

I like numerical grade labeling moreso than Authentic labeling, whether vintage or modern, because I prefer for my collection to be as specific as possible, which is what numbers do, they specify a range. Whereas, an Authentic label is more general and vague. It tells me the item is not a fake, but it doesn't tell me how good it is compared to another copy with the same Authentic label.

The only time I tolerate cards in my collection with an Authentic label is when none of the major TPGs are willing to number grade it. One of my cards was refused by PSA to be number graded, so it came back to me labeled Authentic. I asked CGC if they would be willing to number grade it, and they said yes, so I had it crossed over into a CGC slab with a number grade.

Another more valuable item currently sits in a Beckett slab as Authentic, so I've asked PSA, SGC, and CGC, if they can number grade it, and CGC is open to it, though they would like to see it in person first. If they don't agree to cross it over with a number grade, then I am perfectly happy with it in a Beckett slab as Authentic.

That's how I approach the collection. I will tolerate an Authentic if no major TPG is willing to number grade it.