Bruce I agree 100% and am glad to have someone of your stature and experience say it. Whether on purpose or inadvertently the graders and authenticators will always give better results to people or companies that they know. The ones that are the most experienced are those who have been and continue to be in the business, there for when they grade' authenticate something they are competing against themselves.
-----Original Message----- From: MoPo List [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Bruce Hershenson Sent: Saturday, April 21, 2007 9:39 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [MOPO] Slabbing apples and oranges? Sean wrote, "So Bruce, were there enough follow-ups to your message that you will give us your views on slabbing, or are you out looking for apples?" Actually I was out BOBBING for apples. Does anyone here even know what that means without looking it up? Even when I was a kid it was probably 20 years since anyone had "bobbed" for apples at a Halloween party. There are a million expressions and rituals like that which are dying a slow death and will surely virtually vanish within another generation's time. But back to slabbing. Here is my opinion Sean. I am against slabbing of lobby cards, for two reasons. One, I don't want them made "untouchable". Unlike comic books, I don't care about the fact that they are shut away for reading or research purposes, since you can still see the entire front and back (like a stamp or baseball card). And it is not the "smell" of a lobby card on the morning, either, although there IS SOMETHING wondrous about an absolutely mint 75 year old lobby card that DOES make you want to hold it unsheathed. But the problem with encasing them is that holding them in your hands is a big part of doing a condition description, especially when you are looking for really expert restoration. I have looked at more lobby cards than any human being alive (with the likely exceptions of Morrie Everett and Mike Hawks) and it really makes a difference if I look at a card in a mylar or plastic sleeve or outside the sleeve when I am doing condition, and so I always remove it, even though that takes lots of extra time. I feel that slabbing them will make it far easier for even experts to miss tiny flaws or tiny expert restoration. Which brings me to my second objection. I don't trust the grading services, for two reasons. One, they are substantially owned by the major auction houses and dealers, and those same major auction houses and dealers regularly submit items to the very grading service they own to be graded (and often re-graded) and to say this is a "conflict of interest" is a massive understatement! It is well known that many major auction houses and dealers regularly buy graded items and are able to have them "up-graded". That COULD be because they were "under-graded" the first time, or it COULD be that the grading services are more lenient on their submissions, and the ownership issue is enough for me to feel this is clearly very unhealthy. But suppose the grading services were completely owned by independent people with no connections to major auction houses and dealers. I still see real problems. First, the grading service that gives the most lenient grades would surely get the most submissions (especially once word spread of how lenient they are) and there would quickly be major "grade inflation", and that can only end with virtually everything being graded as gem mint! Second, who ARE these people doing the grading? It has taken me 40 years of examining lobby cards, the last 18 full-time, for me to feel that I am a true expert on lobby cards. You are going to tell me that some pimply-faced kid can learn what I learned in a month or so, and that their grading is as accurate as mine (or any other long time expert)? And the employees of the grading companies are likely under a lot of pressure to get a lot done each day, and they may well be paid by how many they finish, something that surely is at odds with careful scrutiny of every tiny flaw, and finding all possible restored areas. I have heard dozens of "horror stories" on the slabbing of comics over the years (people who broke open slabs only to find undisclosed defects, etc, etc) to know that there are real procedural problems in this business, whether they come from honest errors or dishonest intentional "mistakes". And of course, slabbing brings on the "investors". But that's a whole 'nother subject, one for another day! Bruce Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content. No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.463 / Virus Database: 269.5.7/771 - Release Date: 4/21/2007 11:56 AM No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.463 / Virus Database: 269.5.7/771 - Release Date: 4/21/2007 11:56 AM Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.
