Great article, thanks for sharing R.C.
Regarding this comment:
Is the “discretion” influenced by whom they are hired by? Auction House or Pedestrian Collector. Could that be the difference between the Gwynn bats, Nick?
The word "discretion" basically admits that grading is done subjectively in most instances. Especially since most bats do not come with rock solid provenance, it's an educated guessing game.
Many collectors obviously believe that "friends of the house" will reap the benefits of any bat teetering between grades. Whereas a pedestrian collector will almost always receive the lower grade as to not flood the market with too many high-grade examples.
In John's defense, the GU8.5 was submitted by Goldin which makes it even more shocking that the grade was so low. I do not know who originally submitted the GU10. The main issue are the dates of which the grades were assigned. The GU10 in '06 and the GU8.5 in '13. The grading scale has obviously changed over the years. When John began grading bats (I believe '06?) his grading scale was much more lenient, he had not seen as many bats at that point of his career. As grading has become much more prevalent among collectors and sellers, he has tightened his grading scale. He has seen many more bats and therefore many more quality examples. This is only natural. I truly believe there are 10's out there from '06 that would grade as low as an 8 today. This is a problem since collectors value a 10 from '06 just as much as a 10 from '14. If there was a change to John's grading scale, which I believe there was, there should have been a formal announcement.
One example, I brought John my Paul Molitor bat to authenticate during the National in Anaheim in '06. He told me it was one of the nicest Molitors he had ever seen. There is no doubt in my mind that if I had the bat graded at that time, it would have graded a 10. I finally decided to have the bat graded last year, having remembered what he said (and agreeing with him) only to receive a 9. It's hard to imagine there are Molitor bats two grades higher than this one. The re-sale value of this bat was negatively affected by one man's opinion of it's quality.

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