[Howe’s Hunter]

At one time, I sent six cards to SGC for grading. Wasn't in a hurry, got my cards back, no big whoop. Think I paid maybe $6 a card to have them grading, plus postage.

There is now an opportunity for me to make a trade for some cards that I would never otherwise be able to get. I have five non-Howe stamped cards that I've had for almost 30 years, and they are all HoFers. One big one. The person who says they may trade has two cards I would be interested in. Both have damage to the front and a stamp on the back. Although I've not really ever been big on graded cards, I do understand this gentleman's point of making sure we both know what each other's cards might be worth. Get them all graded by PSA, then use SMR as a guide to determine value.

So I would have five to get graded, in hopes a reaching a value equal to his two cards. Honestly, I think I have him beat and he might owe me in the long run. But this is the first time in more than 20 years I've looked at pricing of having a card graded, and I can't believe it. A card with your estimated value of more than $500 has to be graded at a higher service level than a card valued at less? Are they going to spend more time looking the more expensive card over than the less expensive card? If that is the case, why would you ever bother to have a card less than $500 in value graded? It sounds like they don't really care about it as much and those prices only go up from the more than $500 level.

Guess I've lived in a top-loader, binder sheet vacuum for too long.