Professional Sports Authenticator
was launched in July 1991 by David Hall, owner of the coin grading
company Professional Coin Grading Service, to serve collectors as a
third-party card grader. When they started, they struggled as a
business, due to a low demand of collectors wanting their cards to be
graded. A lot of sports card dealers were against the idea of having a
third-party grade their cards, and decided against using card grading as
a benefit to their business. Eventually, the market quickly shifted
towards wanting cards graded, due to a prevalent amount of dishonesty at
trade shows. Customers rarely felt comfortable with a purchase, and
always felt as though it was a gamble if they were getting a real card,
and not a fake. A third-party grading company started to make sense; a
party that had no financial influence in telling you the honest grade of
a card. Having a card graded gave peace of mind to customers, who can
buy a card with confidence knowing it was a legitimate card, instead of
believing the dealer's biased opinion on what the grade of the card is.