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Analysis Summary
Ask yourself: “What would I have to already believe for this argument to make sense?”
Performed authenticity
The deliberate construction of "realness" — confessional tone, casual filming, strategic vulnerability — designed to lower your guard. When someone appears unpolished and honest, you evaluate their claims less critically. The spontaneity is rehearsed.
Goffman's dramaturgy (1959); Audrezet et al. (2020) on performed authenticity
Worth Noting
Positive elements
- This video provides a realistic, unvarnished look at the high failure rate and inconsistency inherent in bulk sports card grading.
Be Aware
Cautionary elements
- The casual normalization of 'cracking' slabs to resubmit them until a desired grade is achieved, which undermines the perceived objectivity of the grading industry.
Influence Dimensions
How are these scored?About this analysis
Knowing about these techniques makes them visible, not powerless. The ones that work best on you are the ones that match beliefs you already hold.
This analysis is a tool for your own thinking — what you do with it is up to you.
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Transcript
All right, Alico 3 uh PSA order bulk 65 cards or so. Let's start it off. Start off with football. That's the ed rate upper that graded gold. So 75 print Roger's best now. Uh I want his number out of 199. This is one I thought was going to be a nine. So, I have I have to decide if I want to pay the extra. What is it? 21.99 now to uh snap these out and send them in again to try to go from a eight to a nine, but I don't know. Snapping a little bit less lately. Here's a breeze blue. He's about to go to the Hall of Fame. His stuff should bump for a couple weeks. Then it'll probably steady right back. People are weird. one there. This one did well. The gold peppers. So, this is one that could have been eight or nine. This one got the bump. There are a lot of cards that I thought could have been nines. I got eight. That's just the way it goes. So, peppers bowman chrome gold 250. Mint nine. Here's a Vic blue. So, the Vic SPX blue. And his market is pretty solid. I mean, his the uh raw spx is going for like 150 right now. This is the second time I've sent this one. Um it's thicker. It's ultimate collection. It's a It's a really clean card, but I guess since it's thicker, it gets an eight. It's I mean, it's in mint shape. I'm not going to send it again. It's not like it's a high value card, so it is what it is on that one. So yeah, when you grade with PSA, yeah, you you can't get you really can't get that mad at PSA because you signed up for it and you decided to give them your money. So the grades you get, that's what you signed up for. Tory whole refractor eight. And it didn't used to be did not used to be this way, but times change, the hobby changes, and that's kind of where we're at right now. Exchro. It's a nice one. Think that's out of a thousand. Never mind. 1999. So simple photo, but a nice row. That one probably has some value. Vic Bowman's best 2001. Best Vic. It's a nice one. I think that's one of the only cards I had marked as a 10 in this order. Uh, victory gold. One did well. Ray Lewis. Oh, what is that? A ninth year. Ray Lewis, black refactor to 100 gets an eight. And you guessed it, another eight. Fred Taylor, Players, Inc. 98. This card really raw. It's like 15 or 20 bucks. It's got a little white on the back. I pushed it to an eight. And another eight. I believe this was a PSA 9 snap out, but I thought like I had a chance at a 10 because it was centered up so well. And uh it's an eight now. So, Pucket Fleer Fleer rookie from 85. Of course, he's got the 84 fleer update 94 Kenner. I cut this out of a package. So, I had this Barry Sanders starting lineup sitting in my office and I just I was kind of looking at this card in the light and I was like, it looks really good. So, uh I snapped it. When I got it out, I was like, this has a chance at a 10. This is really nice. I got a nine. Fleer David Aras Ortiz. This set I've I've gotten a lot of tens on this and it's just it's not a really tough set. You can kind of it's pretty obvious when you get one in raw if it what what a grade you have for that one. Beltree. Here's his Bowman. This card uh I think it sits around $30 $40 typically. So a little higher than the cost of grading but not by much. Ionics Futuristics Brady. So, uh I think this card's great. College uniform action shot background. It's got that green. And these were pretty tough pulls, too, from those boxes. Those are pretty big set, too. So, this one got a nine. Was they good? This uh So, the the moss send it in once. Didn't understand the six. Well, I understand the six. It's PSA grading, but this time it's an eight. So it bumped up two grades. So that one I had an eight on the sheet and it got an eight. This this fit could have gone to a nine. Top chrome black gets an eight. It's a little off center surface. Uh probably not perfect. The back looks really good. So that's a really clean eight right there. That big. Same thing with LT. It's a LT black. These are probably worth a a flyer. Maybe taking a second chance at nines on these ones. Those both got eights. Draft picks gets a nine. Sent so many of those in over the years. Ricky, this is uh this is the gold. So, it is offc centered right to left 65 35ish and uh the print 25. It's a crazy little print for this time period. And uh great card. A solid eight. There's a lot of eights in this order. I just realized. Jeez. Here's another eight. This is the autograph refractor. So that's out of 25 as well. That's a really rare Peterson. Um, that was a snap out. That was a PSAA autoate. I think I just snapped it out to try to get the nine. Didn't work. Lacquer SPX. Someone's got a nice uh nice swatch there. So it's got the the mint n grade to go with the three color patch. This car would probably fetch $400 or $500, I would guess. This This is one of the uh bafflers. So, that corner is soft. That corner is white. That corner is not perfect. Um that's just the front of the card. So, I had this as like an eight. Came back in 10. I was like, "Oh, wow. That's going right into the store." Sorry for it's going to have to go to a buyer that doesn't care about actual condition and just buys uh labels because if they just buy labels they won't care what it looks like in the slab. Uh Brady Fleer probably his lease. You know this and the Dominion are probably his horse rookies. Here's a mint nine finest refractor moss. That's offc center from uh right to left. Definitely offc center. This optic gold. This is the third time I sent it in. And I don't typically send a card in more than three times. So three eights. There's like a small little That's a surface right there. I mean, if it was a smaller name, I don't think it would have gotten an eight, but it's Brady. This one got an eight as well. So, the SPX blue. So, yeah, if you compare this order to the one I just posted, pretty the the the last one I posted was a pretty big order. Probably double this. Um the the grading definitely changed a little bit the standards. So, gold script to 100. This atomic got a six atomic piaza. I don't know if it's something with the foil or just this is the random six of the order. I think there's a couple sixes that I got, but uh that's got to be low pop. Right. Here's the other six. There's the back. The back's pretty much clean. The front has a little white on two corners. And uh it earns a six. This This was a bummer. I was really hoping for a nine on this. This is the second time I sent it in. It's just uh centered up great. Surface is clean. Doesn't have any dents or anything. But that was I don't know why a card like this is not really that valuable. I was a little disappointed about this. The rest I didn't really I don't really I don't get too worked up on any cards anymore when they come back. I don't get up or down. Just take the grades. Uh I'm surprised they didn't give this a six. In the past they've they've thought the way they insert this can make the back of the card look a little warped and they usually give it it's actually right there across the surface right there in the front. Can make it look like a six. So they I've gotten a lot of sixes on that card cuz I don't understand the set. Bowman Billy Wagner. And this card's like $900 in a 10. This one was clean. I didn't think it was a 10, though. That is a base Bowman. Here's a Harper. This was a BGS 95 fake snap out. It's got a little surface mark right there. And the top to bottom, I don't think top to bottom is perfect. So, it's fine as a nine, right? Longevity breeze. This was a Becket snap out. So, it gets a uh mint nine. That's a pretty rare Breeze rookie. This one got butchered. This is the gold. So, it's got some white on those corners. thicker card. The back looks The back looks great actually, but the front just a little lift in there. So, got knocked down to a six. Fred Taylor, finest Charles Woodson, Future Watch. Yeah, I'm I'm sorting these in. I don't know if I said this at the beginning, but I'm sorting these into three stacks. So, first stack is cards that I thought were graded higher than I expected, cards that were pretty much on point, and the cards that were graded lower. That's just for snapping and cards that go into the PC and cards that go in the store. That's how I decided what to do. Upper deck gold 50. Got a nine. It's got a little white tip on the back. It's fair. Retrofactor offcentered. I mean, I I I can find something wrong with pretty much any card. Even most tens I can find problems. Bowman Chrome. This one is a nine. So the Peterson nine. He he kind of had a big wavy signature. So he never stayed inside the window. So you try to grade his autos. I think you're going to have trouble. This one got higher than I thought. See, it's got like the slightest white on two corners. You could easily say this is a nine. Platinum 04. This was a PSA 8. It's kind of a spite send. It like it was a really good copy. I was just like, come on. Look at the color on that. It's got to be a nine. This time they give it a nine. Calvin SPX. Another eight. Here's the red. 235 on the red. Andre Johnson. So, this one uh it's the second time I sent it in. First time was an eight. Second time's an eight. That stack. This one got hammered as well. Thicker Peterson. It's actually one of the cleaner copies of the card that I have. I had it marked as an eight. So, there's the front and a six. Posture knock. This was a 95 fake snap. Had some surface scratches. I didn't think it was a 10. It's fair. Rookies and stars. that one. Um, it's got two white corners on the back. The rookies and stars. Tomlinson, Mir Gold. Jamal Mir to 40 gets seven. Elder Jamal with the uh the logo. That's an eight. Tony Gwin Fleer rookie. It's a respectable copy. An eight. Brilliance Taylor. Another eight. Here's a Wayne. This This Ovation got a 10. Great uh design photography on card. Great set. It's probably one of the coolest sets of that year. The Ovation rookie premieres. Um yeah, I didn't think this was a nine. It's got that butcher corner. This is an eight. So, that one got a nine somehow. This was actually a PSA 8 snap out. So, there were a few successes on this order. I don't I mean, definitely wasn't one of my better orders. Pretty rough, actually. There's a There's a Lawrence Taylor, though. Did good. Platinum Medallion Manny. It's the 50 2000 Ultra. Nice card. Primary colors Vic. It's a blue die cut to 50. Here's a Here's a jump. This one I thought looked great the first time I sent it in. They gave it an eight. I snapped it out and it got a 10. So, an eight to a 10. Don't know how that can happen, but it did. Samberg's fleer. Put that in a stack. The Edge Refractor gets a nine. Lamar Jackson score. It's like a $60 card. Not much value. I I was a little surprised by that. One of the bigger cards in the order. So, the Spa Edge 10. This is a Blazer, though. If you look at those edges, they're crispy and cut. Those are sharp. So, the edge, some of these cards help to save the order. A lot of these eights would sell for like raw prices. Some would sell for more, but not all of them. Rodriguez, that's a BC gold auto. It's 50. This was actually a Becket nap. We got a 10 Hashim. So, and we'll close out with Vic the Future Watch. Great copy. Thought it had a chance. And a nine. Really clean. An eight. So, that's it. Somewhat of a tough order. Um, the pliers will be utilized on some of these. I'll just throw them into the next order and uh check the store for some reason if you're interested. Thanks. Bye.