8/3/2019 Grading of Cards

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Grading of cardsFrom: GPKTRADERSep-21 3:25 pm To: ALL#25.1 1 of 5After reading Wayne's last message, I thought we should talk about how we all grade cards. What is your

definition of a "mint" card? Is a "mint" card flawless in every way? Is a card "mint" as long as it's fresh out of anunopened pack? Is a card still "mint" if it has factory flaws (ie. miscut, off-centered, ink stains, blurry image, etc)?It just seems like there are a number of different definition for the word "mint", and how a card is centered seemsto be the most overlooked characteristic when grading a card as "mint". I've read a number of guidelines forgrading cards and I understand a "mint" card to be one that is 50/50 centered, has four sharp corners, and doesn'thave any factory errors. A "near mint" card is one with one or two minor flaws (emphasis on the word minor). AmI misinformed?

From:jarose (JAROSEGPK) Sep-21 7:30 pm To:GPKTRADER#25.2, in reply to 25.1 2 of 5I am certaintly not a big collector, but I have to agree with gpktrader. I feel a mint card is really 50/50 or reallyclose like 55/45, but if there is A little residue or it is more than slighty off center, Or if the corners can't cut you,then I would have to go with near mint. Anything else I don't really pay attention to because I am not intersted. I

can understand a seller saying GEM Mint. It is a bold saying, but I think of it as a seller(high feedback ofcourse)giving his own personal word. Sorta like a garantee that they are as good as they come. Then again I do secondguess that, because it is misleading and if they talk trash you kinda wonder if you are going to get trash. What doyou think?--Jason R--

From: GPKTRADERSep-21 10:08 pm To:jarose (JAROSEGPK) unread#25.3, in reply to 25.2 3 of 5

I agree with you that grading a card GEM MINT is a very bold statement. I would never grade a card as gemmint. :) I have a hard enough time grading a card as mint. I always try to give the best description as possible andusually grade a card to be lesser quality than it really is. I love it when one of my buyers tell me that my cards arebetter than he/she expected.

On the other hand, I've purchased cards that I later discovered was someone's old childhood collection.Although they said the cards were in mint/near mint condition, they clearly showed signs of being handled andtraded 15 years ago. Rounded corners, stains, creases, etc. I think these are just people looking to make a quickbuck from their old trash laying around the house. I make it a point now to buy only from those with high, spotlessfeedback; or from my numerous friends I have made while collecting. This way I know I'll be happy with whatI'm getting for my hard-earned money.

From: WMGENUALDISep-21 10:12 pm To: ALL#25.4, in reply to 25.2 4 of 5OK, let me go with the Beckett definitions.Mint (Mt) - A card with no flaws or wear. The card has four perfect corners, 60/40 or better centering from top tobottom and from the left to right, original gloss, smooth edges and original color borders. a Mint card does nothave print spots, color or focus imperfections.Near Mint-Mint (NrMt-Mt) - A card with one minor flaw. Any one of the following would lower a Mint card to aNear Mint-Mint: one corner with a slight touch of wear, barely noticeable print spots, color or focus

imperfections. the card must have 60/40 or better centering in both directions, original gloss, smooth edges andoriginal color borders.Near Mint (NrMt) - A card with one minor flaw. Any one of the following would lower a Mint card to Near Mint:one fuzzy corner or two to four corners with a touch of wear, 70/30 to 60/40 centering, slightly rough edges,minor print spots, color or focus imperfections. The card must have original gloss and original color borders.Excellent-Mint (ExMt) - A card with two or three fuzzy, but not rounded, corners and centering no worse than80/20. The card may have no more than two of the following: slightly rough edges, very slightly discoloredborders, minor print spots, color or focus imperfections. The card must have original gloss.Excellent (Ex) - A card with four fuzzy but definitely not rounded corners and centering no worse than 80/20. The

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8/3/2019 Grading of Cards

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card may have a small amount of original gloss lost, rough edges, slightly discolored borders and minor printspots, color or focus imperfections.I could do Very Good (VG), Good (G), Fair (F), and Poor (P), but why bother fornow. As you can see, I round up the grades because I usually don't use Near Mint-Mint... just Near Mint or Mint. Icouldn't find anything about Die-cuts or error cards because they fall into the "desirable" and "undesirable"category... and are more of a non-sport card concept. So, we'd have to look in something like Non-Sports Updatefor something about that... if they have anything on grading. The 355b without the number is really an error card,but that is going for $15+ these days. Whereas, the miscut cards and off-center cards aren't desirable to mostcollectors, so they aren't worth much.Focus problems... on occasion, you'll find focus problems with GPK's. But, some cards were just printed a littleblurred no matter what print run. I believe I've found most of the focus problems to be on the card backs moreoften than the card fronts.

Ink spots... well, some GPK's have ink spots no matter what print run they were from or what box you get, so howcan you say that every single printing of that card is NM... it doesn't make sense.Gem Mint... I'm still going to say that the cards must be graded by PSA to be Gem Mint, and if we look at what Ijust mentioned about ink spots... there couldn't possibly be a Gem Mint GPK set out there.I feel that all we need is to get a general grasp on the definitions. Most of us are more than happy with NM orbetter condition GPK cards for our collections. If you know someone claims a card to be NM, then you shouldknow what to expect. You should "officially" get mad when someone says a card is MT but when you receive the

card it is EX. I'd just like to see a GPK card that was authentically graded Gem Mint by PSA (with the plasticprotective cover, serial number, etc.) and not by any old dealer who wants to make a sale.Wayne

From: JEREMY_RAY Sep-21 10:55 pm To: GPKTRADERunread#25.5, in reply to 25.1 5 of 5To be quite honest, I don't really consider myself a very hard-core GPK collector. I guess that some peopleconsider GPKs an investment, but I'd never sell my set anyhow, so that's never really been much of an issue forme.So long as the card just "basically" looks good, then I'm quite pleased to add it to my ever-growing US set. (Oncethat is completely finished, then I figure I may start collecting the foreign cards [at least Ireland and the ones thataren't too difficult to get.])Now while I do get torqued off if I end up paying a good price for only a fair condition card, I've never minded

having fair or even poor cards in my set. I want to get a good card, too, but I like having the ones that show wear.To me, and I know this is kind of fruity, they really show history. I have a Drippy Dan from 1st series that ishorribly faded and the edges are worn, but I wouldn't give that card up for anything. I can just imagine the storiesthat card could tell. Who knows, maybe even someone I know or have some distant connection to was the firstowner. Maybe it even passed into the hands of someone famous before it made its way into the plastic sleeves ofmy sixty-eight-cents-from-Staples 1" binder.But maybe that's just me. I can certainly understand the need for guidelines for grading cards, and I canunderstand other people only wanting to have the best, but I've gotten a lot of enjoyment out of simply collectingGPKs as they come to me.Seta del mirtillo,JRL

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