Graded Silks
Over the last 20-30 years grading of baseball cards has become increasing important in the hobby. Third party grading started as a way to determine authenticity but over time the emphasis shifted to a number system 1 through 10 to determine the quality or condition of an item. Silks themselves are very difficult to grade using the standard for baseball cards. PSA the leading and most established card grading company does not grade silks. The grading company that has graded the majority of the silks is SGC . Most silk collectors do not put the same emphasis on grading that card collectors do for several reasons. Silks are woven fabric and have completely different condition issues than cards. SGC’s uses creasing as primary grading criteria while fraying a more important condition issue for most collectors is secondary and often ignored.
S74- 1 White silks are tough to grade as they were factory folded into cigarette packages and the paper backing is unforgiving. Below are examples of the range normally seen. A 3 with some creasing, a 4 with more limited creasing and a 5 that has no creasing at all . The 5 may have never made it into a cigarette pack or somehow the crease was removed.
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While these grades above are typical and would seem fair the grading of silks by SGC and other third party graders is inconsistent. Looking at the two Ty Cobb’s below shows you the range you may see on white silks graded numerically the same.
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S74 -2 Colored silks would seem easire to grade but this is not the case . The criteria while similar to the white silks with creasing being the primary contition issue and fraying beeing secondary has a larger impact . Colored silks do not have a paper back and used a heat sealed edge top and bottom to prevent unraveling. When the sealed edges begin to come apart the fraying becomes prominent often impacting the printing of tobacco company and the factory designation on the silk.
Here are some graded silks to consider where you can see how the grades escalate with some creasing to little or no creasing. This seems reasonable and what you would expect. Unfortunatley this is not something consistent
Below are some examples of graded silks that have fraying to the point where the printing is effected . Regardless of the grades the silks below would not be deisrable to many collectors . These grades are not reasonable in comparison to the ones above. Significant fraying is apparent with the top factory designation impacted as well as the bottom Turkey Red or Old Mill ad becoming hard to read or disappearing. It seems these grades were based on whether the silk has a crease or not. Unlike the white silks the colored silks have no backing and in these cases the creases may have been ironed or steamed out
Grading does have a place with S74 Silks for collectors who prefer their cards or silks in holders. SGC is not the only company grading silks. Beckett grades them as well. It is our opinion that the grading standards for silks is unclear, inconsistent and often does not match the condition of the silk.