Everyone has their own opinion on these things. I do not believe that the bat shit crazy market for Ricky Henderson rookie PSA 10's has raised the interest level or market value one iota of raw cards or the same card in a PSA 1, 2 , etc. Maybe it has raised the value of PSA 9, as speculators think that they will break it out and go for a 10.
Rising tide pf the grading game may have lifted a few boats. Not all of them.
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Originally Posted by Fred
Grading has brought out the "competitive" wallets that "have to have the best". Nothing wrong with that except the result is auction hammer prices that have marked increases which leads to investors driving up the price of the top graded cards which then leads to an increase in price to the lower grade material which drives the price up on everything which makes "people that don't care" if the card is raw or graded pay more for something that used to be much less. You've heard the saying "A rising tide lifts all boats".
It's probably the evolution of the hobby. However it would help if the TPGs actually did what they were supposed to do, without bias and with an adherence to published "industry standards" (which includes actually making a determination cards are TRIMMED).
I can predict the thoughts of some that believe that TPGs do more good than not. To that I say, try to find an old auction catalog that had a collection of T206s from a famous collector and then attempt to tell yourself that many of the cards in the TPG holders were not trimmed. This is from the earlier days of grading which would indicate there was bias and a bit too much "subjectivity" in grading from the beginning and one couldn't imagine things have changed much since then.
I think a lot of collectors are waiting/hoping for the bubble to pop and then see a precipitous drop in interest in what was once a hobby.
However, I could be wrong.
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