I'm 2/3 of the way through a 1960 raw set. I pretty much buy on ebay and use only a few sellers who reliably grade their cards accurately. About 20 of the star cards were either graded cards I had, or I was able to buy for the same prices raw cards are going for.
Most of the cards I'm looking at are in the ExMt range and its a range where "old school" grading is a DRASTIC difference from modern TPG. I was burned more than enough times by old school grading(four badly rounded corners does NOT mean a card is "about exmt"). Really I resent the dishonesty and unethical behavior that existed on the part of MOST dealers prior to the wide availability of TPG slabbed cards.
Anyway, I do crack the cards out of the slabs and do not save the labels. The cards I have thus far in the set present really well, even with some touches of wear on the corners.
The big cards remaining for me are the Mantle, Maris, Koufax, Clemente, Musial and Yaz. Most definitely the Mantle and Yaz will be slabbed purchases and probably the others as well. I picked up most of the all stars already and made sure the Mantle AS and Mantle/Boyer were TPG cards....I think the Mantles are most likely to be trimmed.
|