2020-21 Lafreniere Young Guns BGS grades... thoughts?

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I have a couple of raw Lafreniere Young Guns at home that I'm considering getting graded, so I looked at eBay sales to get an idea of what kind of grades I should be getting. However, a few of them seem to have gotten much better grades than was warranted for corners and edges:

BGS 9:
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/2020-21-Upp...606507?hash=item218219242b:g:SgwAAOSwePdf7nl9

BGS 9.5:
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/BGS-9-5-Ale...847456?hash=item3ff2499220:g:4SwAAOSwqkZgAQ72

Here's another BGS 9.5, which seems to have much better corners than the other one without a better grade:
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Alexis-Lafr...418881?hash=item4b8b2b5081:g:294AAOSwlxhgBuEb

My question to those who know better about grading than I is: Do the grades on these first 2 items seem legit to you? Have Beckett been lax in their grading, mindful of the condition sensitivity of this year's YGs, or something else...?
 
Wow. That is one ugly 9. It's like they've accepted that there was a production problem with this year's Young Guns and aren't going to penalize. I don't know that I would agree.

Mike
 
yeah, I don't agree with that either. Do they grade Bossy rookies easier due to centering issues? Seems like a similiar comparison.

The 9 should be about a 7 with those corners (or less lol)
 
How do the corners get 9.5 on that 9 and first 9.5...that's crazy.

Embarrassingly crazy at that.
 
s-l1600.jpg


This 9.5 looks like it was cut with a butter knife. I sold one just like this below eBay comps lol.
 
I'm thinking they may have relax the corner a bit since so many were rounded this year. Not sure if they did the same for the edges.
 
I don't mind grading companies taking production flaws into account, but there ARE Lafreniere Young Guns out there with super nice corners, so if these rounded cornered YG's received a 9 9.5 on that attribute.... then a true sharp/clean corner is what? A super duper 9, 9.5 or 10?

While the rounded corners do suck, grading these cards lower because of the rounded corners would at least give more value to actual non-rounded corners and command a proper and deserved premium on the BGS Graded versions of these 20-21 Young Guns cards.

I don't know, maybe I'm wrong here. Just my 2 cents.
 
creasecollector said:
I don't mind grading companies taking production flaws into account, but there ARE Lafreniere Young Guns out there with super nice corners, so if these rounded cornered YG's received a 9 9.5 on that attribute.... then a true sharp/clean corner is what? A super duper 9, 9.5 or 10?

While the rounded corners do suck, grading these cards lower because of the rounded corners would at least give more value to actual non-rounded corners and command a proper and deserved premium on the BGS Graded versions of these 20-21 Young Guns cards.

I don't know, maybe I'm wrong here. Just my 2 cents.
Click to expand...

I agree with you. It's going to open up two markets for this year's YGs. True grade and discount grade. Kind of shines a light on some of the inherent absurdities of the whole business.
 
Looking at another one here with corners graded 9 which you can tell, even with a bad quality pic and an inferior grade, has better corners than the first 2 listed in my OP.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/284146153183

Something's fishy...

creasecollector said:
I don't mind grading companies taking production flaws into account, but there ARE Lafreniere Young Guns out there with super nice corners, so if these rounded cornered YG's received a 9 9.5 on that attribute.... then a true sharp/clean corner is what? A super duper 9, 9.5 or 10?

While the rounded corners do suck, grading these cards lower because of the rounded corners would at least give more value to actual non-rounded corners and command a proper and deserved premium on the BGS Graded versions of these 20-21 Young Guns cards.

I don't know, maybe I'm wrong here. Just my 2 cents.
Click to expand...
 
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From what I have heard from others, under close inspection the rounded corners are actually cut that way. So they are not damaged per se, more similar to a diecut. So in this case, it makes sense that corners could receive a 10, just like other diecut cards

Anyone know if there are any Mackinnon "pink dot" YGs graded a 10? That may be the closest comparable for unintended production differences. It would be helpful if UD comes out with an official statement for these rounded corners to help legitimatize them, similar to the Mackinnon pink dots. Even if the graders made an official statement for how they are treating the rounded corners would help. Then we would know the standard they are using.

The other option for the graders is to add a "miscut" attribute to the the grade, but would that prevent a rounded corner version from getting a 10?

Of course the best (?) option is for UD to accept the rounded corner versions back from collectors and replace them with proper square corners.
 
rohara99 said:
There are yes.

Jud7XFV.jpg
Click to expand...

So would you expect that those MacKinnon ones would get dinged on the surface sub? I always thought of surface looking if there were any finger prints, smudges, scratches etc, but I guess it would include the colour of the printing too.

I think that what that $800+ sale shows is that some people are 100% buying the flip and not the card.
 
I for one hope UD doesn't plan on replacing any of the Lafreniere's. Would be nice to see a high end Young Guns that doesn't have thousands of PSA 10 copies.
 
webottew said:
From what I have heard from others, under close inspection the rounded corners are actually cut that way. So they are not damaged per se, more similar to a diecut. So in this case, it makes sense that corners could receive a 10, just like other diecut cards
Click to expand...

Thank you for this insight. I appreciate it.

That would make sense. I guess this would split the market into two 'different' Graded 20-21 Young Guns rookie cards.

Is the card market too young (or would it even matter? I doubt it right now) to differentiate between a "Sharp/Crispy Corner" 20-21 Young Guns PSA/BGS 10 and a "Rounded Corner" PSA/BGS 10 2020-2021 Young Guns.

As far as the label goes, these cards are the same, but we know they are very different to those collectors who want the best copy in their collections & the values could reflect that (maybe?) eventually.
 
webottew said:
Of course the best (?) option is for UD to accept the rounded corner versions back from collectors and replace them with proper square corners.
Click to expand...

That's what they're doing for me. I sent them 2 boxes worth of YGs this morning.
 
In don’t feel that it is fair for grading companies to be more lenient with this years YG cards. That would be like a grading company being more lenient on cards from The Cup. They are thinker cards and thicker cards almost always have edge problems. Or some other years FW cards. I can think of the Price, Kane, Toews year with the border on the top and bottom with the chipping. Should grading companies be more lenient because most of the print run have that issue?
 
I'm not a graded guy, but to me there should be one standard, and only one. Grading is supposed to be a consistent way of proving the condition of a card. Kind of throws the whole concept out the window if they have different rules for different situations.
 

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