"Authentic" cards: are they worth it?

Steve1124

I've been noticing more and more PSA-slabbed cards that simply have the "Authentic" rating, without being assigned a numerical grade. Originally i had thought this was mainly a rating given to hand-cut cards, that weren't cut very well, and with the cut occurring inside the dashed lines. However, i'm seeing this rating for other "regular" issues as well. I know that for purposes of the Registry, that "Authentic" carries a default value of '3', which in THAT way makes an "Authentic" card more desireable than a numeric grade of a '1' or '2'. But are these "Authentic" rated cards worth LESS than those with numeric grades? Is "Authentic" some kind of stigma, like having a qualifier on a grade? Is it indicative of some kind of defect that's not specified on the holder (i.e. a mis-cut, or trimmed, cleaned, or other flaw)? Is this a rating that PSA assigns based on some flaw they spot, or is it done upon request when a person KNOWS for example, that the card is too creased up to receive anything but a '1', or maybe a '2' grade, so having it say "Authentic" is better, in order to get the '3' default grade for the Registry?

I'd like to have some feedback on this.

montanafan

when i see a card that is just "authentic" and not graded, i tend to think that it's because the card would grade poorly...

qualitycards

MONTANA - In many cases you are correct, but trimmed & altered cards that cannot be used
for the numerical 1 to 10 grade can still find a home in a slab.
Here's a nice Turkey Red that was trimmed, its appearance looks better then many of my
low graded T3's and still fits in nicely in my set. Its registry weight is zero but the card counts
toward completion of the set...jay

montanafan

aha... well that makes good sense.. thanks for the info.

cmoking

Although PSA Authetnic cards show up as a "3" in the PSA Registry - they actually count as a ZERO when it comes to adding up the points for the Set Rating. The only way it helps is towards the Completion % category. Technically, you could have all the cards in the set as PSA Authentic, and be 100% complete, but have a set rating of zero. I know this because when I inputed an Authentic card, the Completion % increased, butthe Set Rating stayed constant.