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PWCC now with a 2nd sticker...
mintonlypls
Posts: 1,750 ✭✭✭✭✭
PWCC-PQ standing for premium quality. PWCC-HE is still the higher rated sticker. There is an explanation on their website of the two different stickers awarded to graded cards. I like the HE designation...not sure about the PQ designator. Their data shows that receiving the HE sticker does mean more moo-lah for the consignor.
mint_only_pls
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I'd like to see an OG sticker to let us know he believes the card is over graded.
http://www.unisquare.com/store/brick/
Ralph
I don’t like any stickers on graded cards.
This is getting out of hand.
If PWCC offers to assess a card and sticker it for the consignor to keep or sell (both) then the purple sticker company goes out of business and PWCC makes a lot of money beyond stickering the auctioned ones.
Send me a couple royalties some day. xD
New sticker coming soon, PWCC PQ-HE, that card that is definitely premium quality, but has some High end touches..Then of course you will have a 1 to 10 scale of each qualifier..:)
Work in progress - Unopened Racks/Cello/Wax with star power for Baseball, Football and Basketball
Collecting unopened 80's boxes and graded packs
I may be hoarding too much 80's junk wax but I like it!
This is becoming too complicated...
Ah, more silly little stickers for those of us without functioning eyes.
Or for those who collect stickers.
Instagram: mattyc_collection
If people weren't stupid salesman would never lie.
Despite all the naysayers on this forum the HE designation worked out well for PWCC and their consignors. I am skeptical of the PQ designation but it will be pretty easy to track the impact it has on sales.
Robb
"We are not graders and trust in TPG assessments."
"Here is our grading system to in effect grade the TPG assessments."
Instagram: mattyc_collection
As I understand PSA gives the card it's assessment. PWCC then examines it and may determine it is a High End example of that card. They may also determine it almost made HE but just fell short but is Premium Quality. Perhaps PSA could save some time and develop a 10 point system for each grade. Example a card may be a PSA 8.8, truly a High End card or it may be an 8.6. not quite HE but certainly Premium Quality. Later when collectors want to know how close to HE a card is they may go to a 20 point system. Perhaps that card was actually an 8.65, even closer to HE and thusly more valuable.
http://www.unisquare.com/store/brick/
Ralph
If putting a sticker on a holder causes a potential buyer to look more closely at a card than he/she would have, the seller has already achieved a "win".
There's plenty of examples of cards that appear to be undergraded (as well as overgraded) so I don't see a problem with a sticker that says this is correctly graded, but nicer than other cards with the same grade. They are not going to send them back to get reviewed unless there's a big upside if the card gets a bump.
Ralph, I have always liked the 1-100 grading system, but I have come to believe that it would actually make for even more complaints. "WHAT, my 88 looks better than your 93!"
My dad was a bread delivery driver. He used to have little round red/orange stickers that simply said "Special". To increase sales on a particular type of bread they would sometime put these stickers on the packages. Nothing special about the bread, but used occasionally it sold more bread.
Nothing new here, simply an effective sales strategy.
I am wondering if they might next cull out their overgraded cards that aren't selling, drop the price a bit and put a sticker on them saying they were a great deal for the registry/buytheholdernotthecard guys. "Improve your set rating at a bargain" sale.
How does a card get these stickers? Does PWCC just put them on or do you have to ask and pay for them?
if you've ever sent a card to Oregon and had it slapped with the HE tag (i've had a handful), then this evolution should come as no surprise
gimmicky? that argument could be made. a boon to multiple parties? there's no arguing that.
The popcorn girl is mulling this all over.
What training does PWCC have to grade cards? They are taking cards that are already graded and essentially grading them again. It sounds like PWCC is an FPG (Fourth Party Grader).
buying O-Pee-Chee (OPC) baseball
This.
I'm sure to them they consider it a marketing gimmick. They would use a different word than gimmick but it is what it is.
Agreed. Love Brent and PWCC but where does it stop?
It’s really no different than an ebay seller saying “I think it’s a nice example of the grade.” It’s only the fact that people take Brent’s opinion more seriously that gives it any weight. But I see no reason PSA would have a gripe, nothing about their grade is being misrepresented.
PWCC is not grading the graders.
They're really just applying the DM23HOF test to cards.
"This one looks nice".... "this one looks really nice". It's not particularly hard to do, especially when you see lots of examples of the same cards in hand day after day.
This is an excellent question. It's easy to skirt the issue when it's all positive and everyone's winning. However, look at it from the opposite point of view: what would PSA think if another company were affixing permanent labels to their proprietary property that had a negative impact on either the card's value or PSA's reputation?
If you've established a precedence of being fine with it when it was all dumplings and honey buns it's tough to turn around and say well now we have a problem with it.
Arthur
I understand your point. If I point out a card as being a terrible example of a PSA 9, no one really cares because it carries no weight. If PWCC did it I imagine it would be a problem. But of course it won’t happen because there’s no money to be made trashing a card, only by puffing it up.
To mean it just means trust your own eyes more. Don't rely solely on gimmicks to make an uninformed decision .
As a consignor I'm all for it.
It's just this, and all PWCC is doing is emulating the CAC model. If CAC didn't have people behind it that most people thought very highly of, that sticker would carry no weight. Same with PWCC's version.
PSA won't have a problem with it, as PCGS has already set out the model, having no problem with CAC stickers on their product.
I’ve seen several PWCC HE cards I didn’t like and conversely some PWCC cards I loved that were not categorized HE. So it could work in favor of the discerning buyer if investors start to shun anything not labeled HE.
A PWCC-HE sticker draws my attention and I take a closer look at it...so it does serve a purpose for me when viewing 600+ lots. It helps me create my watch list...
Does CAC denote negative connotations as well?
Arthur
It's a point that can be argued many times back and forth, but no CAC sticker doesn't imply the coin must be bad; it might be, or, it might simply haven't been submitted ever to CAC for approval. Even if it has, and didn't get a sticker, that fact isn't published/made available. CAC pro and con is pretty much like arguing religion. I would think the PWCC stickers won't have as much controversy, since the only way they're applied (for now) is to cards auctioned through PWCC. Should he open up a service to submit cards for his sticker, without having to sell said cards, it would get closer to what CAC is. CAC is simply a way for John Albanese to identify coins he would like to make a market in. With his sticker applied, he knows it reaches a minimum level of quality, and he can offer buy/sell prices for same, without having to see it again.
Okay, I think I understand what it is now. Thanks for explaining it, I'm completely ignorant when it comes to coins.
Arthur
Not at all! I was into coins before I discovered cards; I like 'em both.
So now there’s an eye appeal scale, with 5 different levels. As we discussed earlier, I’m not sure what is to be gained by designating a card as a 0.
Edited to add: after reading the email more carefully, I gather they are only assigning the two highest designations, which is a relief.
Easy enough to do with a strong enough light. While not the same as truly seeing a card outside of its plastic confines, you can tell enough about it to say "do I agree with the grade overall" and "is this truly a premium example because of rare focus, rare lack of print defects, rare great color, rare pinpoint centering for the issue -- etc." It's no different than what DM23HOF does when considering a card for his collection, as someone else mentioned.
Whenever I consider a card, I do dig up every single image of other examples in the same and surrounding grades to gauge its eye appeal. I have been doing this comparative analysis for almost two decades, and it has been a fun and engaging part of the hobby/process.
I think what PWCC is doing is a gimmicky and purely mercenary version of it, while also posturing as if they are inventing some proprietary new system. Most irksome is that they are trying to codify a terminology that they would like us to swallow and parrot— when we collectors have been doing it with our eyes just fine.
It's a fine line, for sure. Hanging a lantern on a card with rare eye appeal for the grade, that is certainly a cool thing. Rolling out a didactic, for-profit system replete with terminology— not a fan of that. The HE designation served the purpose adequately I thought— of course many of us saw some of those opinions we agreed with, and others we didn't, which is all good.
Instagram: mattyc_collection
Here is the link
https://www.pwccmarketplace.com/eye-appeal?utm_source=social&utm_medium=tweet
Premium Quality? Where I come from, "the PQ" is slang for Quebec. I can't hear/see those initials together and think of anything else.
I agree with most of what you say, but I don't think this is a for-profit venture specifically for PWCC, other than it encourages submissions of high-end cards, that would hopefully earn such a sticker and get higher results and thus a higher % for them. If people didn't buy into PWCC's opinion (but they do) -- it won't carry any weight, and no worries. But it benefits not only PWCC, but those consignors of said cards, too. In the end, it's not all that much different than CAC green and gold stickers. And ultimately, the buyer can decide to chase a card with a sticker, or not, depends just on how much $$$ they are willing to part with.
Many can benefit from knowing if a given card has high-end merits at a glance; it doesn't mean they have to agree with the sticker, or that other cards that are PQ and sticker-worthy suddenly don't exist. Your mention of "a terminology that they would like us to swallow and parrot— when we collectors have been doing it with our eyes just fine" is literally, verbatim what a grumpy old cuss in Australia says about the idea of grading rare stamps; except he adds "we've been doing it just fine for 100 years."
There's no need Ralph, those would be the cards that don't have the HE or PQ stickers.
No matter PWCC HE designation or not, every card consigned that will sell above $2000 will be technically superior for the grade and worthy of consideration.
Gotta hand it to them, they have created a platform to get higher returns for the consignors with their HE designation. But just like the Solo Star Wars movie in relation to the Star Wars brand, just because they had a hit with HE doesn't mean the PQ designation will be a hit too.
Indeed, and if it isn't a hit, no big deal to anyone.
I noticed in my Email from PWCC that showed us their grading scale on a PSA labelled card that better centred cards were given a higher rating.
Very unfortunate in this situation as I liked Solo but despised The Last Jedi.
I'd be curious about the final selling price comparison between a PSA 8.5 and the same cars in PSA 8 with an HE sticker.
http://www.unisquare.com/store/brick/
Ralph
Origin stories are fun. I liked Solo, but did the movie really need the giant spaceship eating octopus? Perhaps that is the PQ equivalent.
Spoiler alert! Doh, I haven't seen the movie yet.
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Doesn't PWCC post here?
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