Mastro and Leland's Raw Grading Standards

The53Kid

Does anyone have experience with buying raw material from Mastro or Leland's and then getting it graded? Are their stated grades lenient or strict?

Every picture I look at in the Mastro catalog looks awesome, then I read the description and it says EX-MT. Isn't their grader an old PSA grader? And it appears Mastro gets many of their sets in raw form and grades the top X percent. So I'm assuming if it could get an 8 they would have attempted to grade it out. Thoughts on that??

Thanks!

Griffins

One of Mastro's top guys now is Derek Grady, who was the vintage grader at SGC until about a year ago.
I've found Mastro's Chicago auctions pretty bang on as far as taking raw cards and having them slabbed. Rob Lifson's seemed to grade a bit higher than stated, and Oser's a bit lower. This is based on about 20-50 cards graded from each, and obviously isn't a huge sample.
No experience with Lelands. There is a fair amount of discussion of their card knowledge (or lack thereof) on the Net54 board.

gemint

I believe they have Derek Grady from SGC working for them. I'm not sure if they also have ex-PSA graders on staff. I've been told the grading is pretty accurate depending on which location the auction is being run out of. I wouldn't expect cards advertised as EX-MT to be any better than NM. I'm amazed at how good some EX or EX-MT cards look when I scan them.

Edited to add - Looks like Griffins beat me to the punch.

JeffVN

My expierence predates the addition of Mr. Grady, but they were pretty much dead on when I bought my 56 Topps set about 3 years ago. With regards to the star cards in the set, the cards were overgraded on some, under on some and right on on most of the cards. A few of the commons were below the acceptable range for me, but the Koufax came back an 8 instead of the NRMT-7 they graded and I was happy overall.

aro13

From my experience Mastro's raw grading is very good. The cards always do look awesome in their catalogue. I would be pretty confident that if they say a set or lot is 50% NM or better that it will be.

beefcake210

I think you'll find that Mastronet will grade most key cards in a lot that will grade 8 or better - i.e. a 60-63 Topps set run will have the Rose RC graded if it's high grade, and some of the Mantles if applicable. However, most of the time they won't grade lesser stars and commons. I think that Mastronet pays for the grading out of their own pocket (or out of their commission if you will) so while I'd expect them to grade cards that would enhance the value of the lot, I wouldn't think they'd spend the time or money to grade a ton of them.

The53Kid

Beefcake,

Good Point! If Mastro does pay for the grading, they don't want to eat into the profits by grading an excessive amount of cards. This gives me hope of more 8's yet to be graded.

Thanks to all who responded!

Ruthfan

Mastro's pays for the grading out of their own pocket. It does not come out of the seller's commision.

beefcake210

<< <i>Mastro's pays for the grading out of their own pocket. It does not come out of the seller's commision. >>



Well inherently it comes out of his commission if he's paying for it out of his own pocket. It's just not ADDED to the commission.

Fuzz

Graded some Mastro vintage BB last year that was described as 50% NM and 50% Nm-MT. Got results that were more like 30% 8's and 70% 7's after sorting through the material and screening out the obvious. So it was a little high but not much and the NM's were still very nice.
Would never expect to buy a Ex-MT and shoot for a 7 let alone an 8. Trust the experienced eyes staring at the card and not the scan.
Lot's of experienced guys there and there grading is generally close to right on.
Fuzz

gemint

My one complaint is that they lump NM and NM-MT condition into the same percentage. So a set that is listed as 50% NM to NM-MT could be 49% NM and 1% NM-MT or visa versa. I consider anything NM or worse as a future upgrade. So I wish they would either lump NM with EX-MT or list them all separately. If I decide to bid on any sets, I guess I'll have to call them to get a better definition for the set of interest.

joedel

If a particular grouping is listed as 50% NM to NM/MT, always assume that the majority is NM. If most of the grouping is truly NM/MT, then this percentage would be reflected as such, and separated as 40% NM/MT and 10% NM.

The Mastronet family has recently gone through a divorce. Rob Lifson was affiliated with Mastronet for about two years, but this past April broke away to be on his own again. His own auction, once again under the Robert Edward Auctions name, is scheduled for April 2004. I believe they are looking for high quality consignments, as I received the standard email from REA about a week ago. Also, Ron Oser auctions were disbanded several years ago and is now solely under the Mastronet umbrella.

gemint

Thanks for the explanation Joe. Good to see you on the forums.