[David Atkatz]

Originally Posted by Lordstan

The advanced collector is the person who needs the TPAs the least as you don't get to be an advanced collector without having a lot of experience that has come from many years learning from various sources and from the mistakes they have made along the way. The casual observer is the person who need the TPA as they just want an autograph without any of the work involved in learning.

As a counterpoint to the comments so far, I have sent only one card in for slabbing ever and it was to sell in the short term. I will never send any card, or any auto for that matter, I intend to keep, in for slabbing/authentication.
Why?
1) I don't need it. I only buy autos from people I trust or signatures that I feel very confident in. Having a mystery authenticator tell me that my item is real means nothing. If I buy something from Jim Stinson, Richard Simon, Bill Corcoran, Kevin Keating, and a few others I know that they have looked at it and That is enough. When anyone sends to PSA there is no way to know who authenticated it. All the confidence in them comes from their incredibly efficient and effective marketing plan. Please tell which experienced/advanced collector trusts Steve Grad or even Jim Spence? Why don't you all listen to the person with the most advanced HOF auto collection that I am aware of? He is a member here and if you read his posts carefully, you will see how relieved he is that Keating and Corcoran are now working for PSA.

2)I can always do it later when I go to sell them. As a matter of fact, I won't have to. When I die and my family sends my stuff to an auction house to liquidate, except for perhaps Lelands, they will automatically send it all to whichever authenticator they are working with to get certed in some way. I hear people describe how they are worried about their families getting screwed by not having their stuff preauthenticated. Nonsense. Make a list with instructions for how to liquidate the collection. Do you really think your family is going to list your collection one by one on ebay? You really think they are going to want to deal with the hassle of listing, shipping, dealing with deadbeats and chargebacks? Not likely. If you want to make it easy, have them ship it to one of the big AHs and let them do the work.

Plus my way saves you boatloads of money that you can spend buying more autographed cards. Slab/Cert right before you are going to sell to maximize profits on the sale. Keep the rest raw.

In the OP's case, I would not unslab the ones you already paid for, but probably wouldn't send any more. Ultimately, spend your money onwhatever makes you happy.

Sage advice.