I was just thinking about the period in my life when I graded cards for SCD Authentic… ahhh, the good ol’ days. Actually, it was one of the most boring jobs I ever had:) Sure, I got to check out some of the best cards in the hobby, Hank Aaron rookies, Mickey Mantle rookies – I even got to grade Larry Fritsch’s Honus Wagner T206 and Freddie Lindstrom 1932 US Caramel cards.

But I am more of a people person and it makes me cringe to think that I once spent more than eight hours a day in a small, dark room looking at cards.

That said, I remember some of the phone calls we used to get and I would like to share some of the biggest misconceptions in the card-grading world.

-    Grading companies do not switch cards.

o    I don’t care if it’s SCDA, PSA, GAI or even CSA, the large grading companies do not switch cards… it makes no sense. Why would a multi-million dollar company like PSA put its business in jeopardy to steal a few grand? Not happening.

-    The serial numbers on graded-card labels don’t mean anything significant.

o    I remember the rumors that the first number on a PSA label meant you had a certain grader looking at your cards. No. 5 meant you had the more lenient grader and No. 7 meant you were in trouble and would get no higher than 7s. Give me a break. It makes for a great Oliver Stone movie plot, but really holds no bearing in trading-card reality. There is no significance to the serial number. None.

-    People accuse grading card companies of damaging their cards.

o    I am not going to say that it doesn’t happen, but I will say it is highly unlikely. At SCDA, I can only remember one instance when a card was damaged. We immediately called the customer to explain what happened and I believe gave the man an amount in cash that he was happy with.

o    I would like to think that the other grading companies would handle it in the same manor as we did, but there is no way I will ever know for sure.

-    People used to call us and ask how they knew the package would get there safe. Many people simply would not send packages through the mail.

o    I can totally understand this. If the postal service lost a package, it would basically mean they lost someone’s childhood and/or passion. That said, I will throw in the fact that I have personally shipped thousands of packages in my life and the USPS has never lost one. Not even one.

-    Lastly, people used to call SCDA all the time and tell us they had a T206 Honus Wagner card and that they wanted to get it graded.

o    Ok… there is a chance that the card is real. Probably a one-out-of-a-million chance.

o    That said, if the back of the card tells you that a Honus Wagner T206 card is worth thousands of dollars, then it has no chance.

Good day, I’m off to Dallas for the Heritage auction.