Another Comment On Grading

Chris over at Blowout Cards just tweeted on Beckett’s story that a near “perfect” Michael Jordan Fleer RC has sold for over $200,000 per the people over at Scamville, USA. Let me respond by saying that this is further evidence that shows grading is about as subjective and arbitrary as PSA and their autograph fraud detection services. Basically, a guy in texas gets a good copy of a Jordan RC in for “grading.” After seeing that it is a good copy, he has a choice – as a human being – about how to continue with “grading” the card. I mean, there is very little concrete differences about what can be a 9.5 and what can be a 10, and no one would ever question a good grade on a card like that, so who is to say he doesnt act with bias.

See, as a human, not a machine, he makes arbitrary and subjective calls due to his inconsolable nature. When Beckett created a grade higher than mint, despite this problem, the goal was not to show the perfection of a card, but to add more reasons for people to submit their cards for “grading.” If it was just a scale from shitty to mint, it would only be used as the service it was supposed to be (a fraud prevention device for online sales), rather than a way for people to make money.
Let me put it this way, grading is a complete scam, like most of the other shit Beckett does on a regular basis. Because it is done with only loose standards applied to human eyes, with little reason to question any positive result, Beckett has created a loop hole for their ad vehicle, as well as their big customers.
Ill give you an example to illustrate what I am saying.
Because no one will question a positive “grading” result (no matter how fraudulent it may look), due to increased value of the card in the slab, Beckett has an out. This means if you buy a Beckett 9.5 slabbed card that is really an 8, it is now a 9.5 and no one will question that. Same with the 10 above, as it could really be a 9.5, but no one in their right mind would ever try to dispute that with the prospective loss of thousands of dollars. This also means that for each customer that submits huge orders on a regular basis, Beckett now has the ability to reward them for their business without establishing that the “graded” cards are done so at a lower standard as a favor. If a guy sends in thousands of cards each month to be graded, and consistently receives 8.5s and 9s, he has every reason to stop his submissions or go to another company. If he continually gets 9.5s and 10s, thats more and more business Beckett would receive. Because the “grading” process is so arbitrary and subjective, there is no ability for me to prove this happens, but I have definitely seen the possibility in action with sellers like Wolverine24 and others.
The possibility of helping out a high profile card can also be used as a ridiculously potent ad vehicle, as we saw with the absurd Montana 10 sale, and the previous Jordan 10. Its almost like people cant see through the thinly veiled attempt at promoting the service, and pay the price of a FUCKING HOUSE to get these cards, despite the fact that cracking them and resubmitting them would almost surely result in a lower grade.
There sure are a lot of people out there who cant understand why I despise Beckett as much as I do, but I have my hundreds of reasons for doing so. The fact has always remained, with no objective non-profit regulating body, Beckett has ZERO responsibility to provide a service to collectors that doesnt have huge conflicts of interest built in. Every single thing they do is designed to make them money, not provide you with real information or a realistic view of what is actually happening in the hobby. For that reason alone, the tip of my iceberg was created, and luckily for me, I have developed a great vehicle of my own to show how much of it lies below the surface of the water.

The Fake Rookie Premiere Autos Have Not Gone Away

Let me say this straight out. Just because I havent posted on the blatantly fake rookie premiere autos in a while, does not mean they have gone away. If anything, Burge and company have gotten better at them. Practice makes perfect right? Although there are still close to 200 of each card floating around with the bad, bad, horrible fake autos on them, the band of thieves has adapted a little to change it up.

Here is a recent fake:
Please tell me how someone with an untrained eye could pick that up as a fake. It looks 100 times better than the five year old with a crayon from before, and has now made it practically impossible to identify for a collector that doesnt know what they are doing.
Here is another (different seller), a quad:
I can say with 100% certainty that this is completely fake. However, the auto styles have changed slightly, and the Calvin Johnson sig almost looks passable. As for the Peterson, it looks exactly the same as the one above, and the Lynch is still ridiculous looking. The Ginn isnt bad, but it isnt good either.
Personally, I think its puzzling how these cards got into the hands of the sellers. Some have suggested that they get blues and wipe off the sigs to replace them with reds. Others are saying they are stolen from Topps, or that someone on the inside is passing them to the fakers. After seeing the Harvin I posted about before, it wouldnt surprise me either way.
Listen. Its pretty simple. If you are at all uncertain about the rookie premiere you are buying, DONT FUCKING BUY IT. Find one that looks good compared to others that are graded, and always let the doubt in your mind back you out of a sale. They prey on unsuspecting people, and from what has been circulating around the net, Burge has made a small fortune on these cards.
Lastly, if you have any questions, just email me at the link on the right. Ill be happy to help in any way I can.

Some People Are Too Stupid For Words…

Every once in a while you see something on eBay and you just know the story behind it without even reading what happened. Most of those times, you can see the stupidity shining through like a beacon, especially when it’s a card like this one:

Here is the story of the card, as told by me.

One day, Senor Jose Collectadora was on ebay and saw some SICK MOJO CARDZ!!! posted for his favorite player Tony Romo. He immediately hit the 19.99 buy it now because he knew he was getting a MAJOR STEAL!!!!! on a Romo NFL logo patch 1/1 that usually sells for hundreds. When he got it, he picked it up only by the edges because he knew he had to send it in for grading and didn’t want it to be messed up in any way. Fingerprints are BAAAAADDD. Of course, before he sent it in, he made sure to check his bible to see the book value for when he posts it on the message boards for his “daily steelz thread!!!!!!!!!!!”

Upon seeing that 1/1s were “too scarce to price” he began to think he had more SICK MOJO than he thought he had before! This could be a card worth thousands of dollars! He posts his steal on the board, and people laugh him off the page. When he sees the laughs, he starts to see a little bit of the stupidity behind his purchase. He pulls up the auction and sees that in the description, its listed as a custom card and is not real in any way. Jose doesn’t care, and posts it on eBay thinking that he can get someone else to fall for the plan. I mean, he cant stand being made fun of, and this is the way to make him feel better.

Nice job Jose, some day you will get exactly what you deserve. Fucking idiot.

H/T Joseph

I LOVE Being Right

Last year, I posted on this card, saying there was no question that it was fake. Now this guy, who obviously didnt follow the golden rule of patches, is FINALLY catching on. Glad to see some people do eventually see the light, despite it being about a year too late.

In the auction, the guy has basically come out and said it was fake, which is good. Thank you for that. However what is really funny, is that he has a reserve on the card, and he is actually looking for people to bid on it. Yes, he even had to send it into Beckett just to get that last bit of confirmation. You know, because its not completely fucking obvious already. For fuck’s sake, he could have sent me 20 bucks just to reiterate everything I posted on last year.

This is where I say I told you so and laugh, because some people are so fucking stupid that it makes my head hurt.

This Could Be The Worst Fake In The History Of Fakes

Ebay seller Blackberrycards has pissed me off. I get emails from eBay every day with Peterson stuff, and I didnt read any of them in the last few days. When I looked this morning, this one was right on top of one of the emails. Its so bad that I actually laughed pretty hard.

In fact, I dont think that many people are falling for these, but its the principle of the matter. If you are a big enough douchebag to do this type of thing, you deserve to be castrated to prevent you from reproducing. Its just bad, no other way around it.

Now that I think about it, someone should start a fake card hall of fame. His Topps RPAs that he sells would definitely be a part of the inaugural class with the TRIPLE NFL logo Eli Manning fake patch/fake auto card.