In April I sold off almost all my Collectors Universe stock. Some here knew that and many noticed my unkind words towards PSA as of late.
Plus, I’ve had a problem with PWCC for years.
I didn’t want to elaborate much cause of slander laws.
Well this article touches on part of the problem.
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Wow. Very interesting and informative read. Extremely upsetting as well.
Pardon my French but what the fuck? They don’t have their guarantee backed by insurance?
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That isn’t reassuring. That is always a red flag.
Joe isn’t wrong in a general sense. Returning to pre-third party grading is a nightmare. However if 100s-1000s of trimmed cards passed through, they need to change their standards.
Is this real life?! I guess the plan is deny that indent on a psa 10 card exists, don’t payout, ez.
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Pretty much they have a guarantee until you actually need to use it 
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The Clemente price was moved up and down $100k+ that fast…
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That’s a yikes from me 
The stock has doubled in 6 months, unsurprising that Orlando sold shares. The rest I have been following pretty closely and it’s damning. Beckett is even worse
My fear is that Beckett is simply crooked.
PSA hasn’t kept up with demand so opened the door to mass mistakes.
And finally, PWCC, as I’ve been saying for years, doesn’t care.
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Actually the stock took a hard drop back in 2018 when they cut the dividend percentage. It still hasn’t recovered to that time.
The fact that they don’t have insurance on the guarantee is mind-boggling, but it also highlights that PSA is first and foremost a business. They are here to make money, not to do us collectors a big favor by objectively grading our cards. If someone ever made a guarantee claim that would impact them seriously, you’d at minimum have to go to court to get the money, and may not get it at all.
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Anyone think this will have an impact on their Pokémon card grading legitimacy? Especially with the volume PWCC has sold? People will start second guessing PSA 10 grades and won’t pay as high a premium?
It would bother me more if I didn’t pull 95% of all my graded cards from packs myself (and all but three of my high end Charizards I pulled myself)
Short Collectors Universe to the ground.
Anyone want to start a card grading company that grades cards via computer ?!
Have a human set the parameters for each grade. ie. What type of damage can exist for each grade.
Scan current cards for each grade to create a baseline database for the program to compare against.
Cards come in. Take a picture/scan. Compare to database. Boom. Consistent grading.
Don’t know If that would work or not. But it sounds good. 
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But is there any viable alternative at this moment in time?
None of this gives great confidence in the established grading companies.
Now I know why PSA 1 of cards can be popular as there is no way anyone has altered them to obtain a higher grade 
time to start collecting PSA 1s!
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I’d invest with you:)
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I guess this brings up a pretty big question I’ve wondered myself: How does the community keep a big company like PSA in check? Is it possible? Right now - PSA and Beckett have been getting a lot of backlash in the community and now this comes out… it’s just getting worse. I think there is an opportunity for an unbiased company to enter the market and make a lot of money right now - though it would be difficult of course.
The bottom line in this situation is human error is consistent. There will always be issues when large sums of money are involved with pieces of paper. But can someone else come along that’s willing to either invent some sort of computer efficient grading or another consistent method?
The community keeps them in check by impacting their profits. The issue with professional grading companies are that they all have exactly the same business model and steps to achieve it:
Step 1: Grade/authenticate items
Step 2: Build a reputation of objectivity and accuracy
Step 3: Profit off of the reputation of objectivity and accuracy
Let’s be clear about what PSA is selling here: they aren’t selling objective condition assessments or authentications, which any joe schmoe off the street can do. They’re selling the PSA reputation, which they’ve built over the years. Things like the financial guarantee, PSA Auction Prices Realized, etc. all contribute to that reputation.
This is where problems come in: that reputation is not quantifiable in terms of assets or stocks or anything we’re used to. Some companies like Apple (maybe more fittingly fashion brands like Supreme and Versace) are selling a reputation in addition to a product, but for professional grading companies the “product” they’re selling is really just a plastic case and the opinion of one of their employees. That’s nothing. But can we quantify how many people won’t grade with PSA because of this, or won’t purchase PSA graded cards? Not a chance. So much happens on the secondary market that I’d be really surprised if anyone could do more than make a shot-in-the-dark estimate.
There will never be an unbiased professional grading company. It’s an oxymoron in and of itself. You will always have to charge more for higher service levels, there will always be the incentive to grade cards higher for publicity/increased fees. Companies main goals are never to provide the service they do, only to make money. Computer grading will have its own host of problems, likely more than human grading. It would be an interesting experiment but I doubt anyone would be willing to put up the necessary time and money to figure it out.
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The phrase “start a grading company” is just a meme. I’ve gone to the point of talking with VC’s about starting up something, and its just not worth the risk. Thin profit margins, absorb way too much risk, grading is inherently subjective, petulant customer base who blames you for anything whether its your fault or not. Also you need reputation. I am not sending my cards to someone who has minimal experience with a hobby.
For people who want to implement computer grading as part of the process, are you willing to pay $25 per card on the low end? That is always the conundrum; people want the best technology, expert employees, immediate service, but still pay $8 a card…
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