How about 'Graders Notes' for cards?

DaBigHurt

I'm don't if this subject has been broached, but what do you all think about PSA including/keeping 'graders notes' on record of the cards they grade? CGC, the industry leader in the grading of comic books provides grader notes to customers who request them. That way, customers know the reasoning behind the grade they received and in some cases, detect the flaw they did not see even after the comic was encapsulated.

I think it's safe to say that at one time or another, everyone of us has thrown our hands up in the air after receiving our cards from PSA and felt there were certain cards undergraded. For the cards we thought that were surefire 9s and 10s but graded 7s, grader notes would enable customers to pick up the phone or access online the grader notes and know conclusively what flaw it was that knocked the card down to a 7.

In my opinion, I don't think it's asking too much for a grader to jot down a few words like 'upper left corner is soft', 'centering is askew', 'excess surface wear', etc in the process of grading the actual cards. The grader has an opinion on the condition of the card. What's wrong with putting that opinion down on paper? Not only will customers be more informed about their cards, this would also make graders more accountable.

Currently, our only recourse when confronted with a card we feel that is inexplicably undergraded is to curse the dreaded 'grader of death', crack the card open and resubmit or just pretend the situation is fine and accept the grade, despite not being sure as to why the card received its grade. Quite frankly, I'm not sure how any of the aforementioned scenarios can make sense to a rational adult.

I think there are alot of pros and a few cons and would be very interested in what the rest of the board thinks.

calleocho

how much do they charge to grade a comic book?

JasP24

I'd love to see PSA include the notes with the packaging slip...

I don't see it happening though. It goes against the whole "eye appeal" arguement that is of course in the eye of the grader.

Would be great to see a more detailed description though.

Jason

MorrellMan

Good idea but probably not economically feasible. I would make a conservative guess: maybe one card in a thousand would result in a call to PSA for documentation. We have to pay the cost for the documentation of ALL cards, the filing and storing of same, the time for the operator and/or CSR to dig out the docs and produce the info - even if the whole thing was computerized and we could access it on our own, there would be a huge cost to that - and that cost would be, quite fairly so, passed onto us. And how many documentations would end up saying "I'm just sick of looking at this card"?

AlanAllen

CGC's economy service is $29 per book. You could sumit every card three times and still come out ahead . It would be nice to have, yeah, but I think it would be more expensive that it's worth.

Joe

volmaniac

Just my thoughts but couldn't PSA just add and extra service charge to the price of the grading fees for those who want the notes on the grades they recieved. Or another possibility would be for high ticket items that the difference between one or two grades makes a substantial difference in the value of the card that the "service charge" be included.

mikeschmidt

<< <i>Just my thoughts but couldn't PSA just add and extra service charge to the price of the grading fees for those who want the notes on the grades they recieved. Or another possibility would be for high ticket items that the difference between one or two grades makes a substantial difference in the value of the card that the "service charge" be included. >>



No - PSA really has no incentive to segregate their services. If they offered two services - people would start to question why some had it and some did not. Graders are ALWAYS happy to discuss specific grades with you at a show - or, if you send a card in for review, you often will get a post-it back with a note pointing to a print dot, or a corner, or something indiciating what went wrong. Whether or not you want the service - the bottom line is that most people do not, and it would not be economically attractive for PSA to offer this service without charging a huge premium.

MS

ctsoxfan

mikeschmidt has it right on this one. Review services are available if you need them for those times when a grade really doesn't make sense, but if you ask the graders to really explain every grade, what would that do to efficiency and turnaround times? Good concept, but I don't see it happening.

DaBigHurt

CGC prices start at $29 for the economy service. There are many reasons why the price for grading a comic through CGC is so much more than grading a baseball card with PSA and I would have to say grader notes would be the least of them.

I doubt the expanding of a service PSA already employs will be so onerous that the system itself will be somehow crippled. We know that PSA already notes miscuts, stains, OC on the actual label itself. Can it be that much harder for a grader to write down 'upper right corner fraying' when that's in fact what he saw? In addition, PSA already has an established database online for anyone who wishes to verify a PSA grade. The documentation process is already established with PSA.

If I didn't witness firsthand the accepted practice of the status quo, I wouldn't believe that it would be possible for a consumer to regularly pay for appraisals, yet accept the fact that he has no idea how the appraiser arrived upon his final decision when the consumer disagreed with the judgment.

ZodiacMindwarp

DaBigHurt,

Should wax/gum stains be considered "external obsolescence"?

WinPitcher

If i am not mistaken the cost to grade a comic is dependant upon its value.

Tabe

Anybody tried these guys?

Certified Express Grading

Was looking through their website and their $10/card service includes a little card detailing the problems they found with your cards.

Tabe
www.tabe.nu