PSA Confidence Buying?

[mferronibc]

Ok I have been reading as much as I can the last few weeks about the PSA/PWCC altering scandal and unfortunately I seemingly started back in the hobby at a really bad time (although I’m sure fraud may not be any more widespread now than 10 years ago, just more publicized now as big companies got greedier and greedier). I’d say about 80% of my excitement getting back into vintage cards, mainly to try and build a cool collection for my newborn son that’ll spark his interest someday as a shared hobby, has been tempered.

I’m wondering what the overall consensus is continuing to buy graded cards. Have people stopped completely and are waiting for the dust to settle or proceeding with caution. I’m not a big fan of the usual response - just buy non-graded vintage. For me I have zero confidence in one picture on EBay telling the full story about the true condition of a card and maybe I’m part of the problem, but yea I feel warm and fuzzy about a grade knowing what I’m getting (even though I know how subjective grade can be and taking the risk the card may be altered in the first place).

My question is does anyone feel any more confident buying cards in older PSA slabs then the new lighthouse ones (or whatever they’re called). Doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me that so many true high grade cards were just sitting around in someone’s collection until this year when they decided to get them graded. Much more likely they were already graded low, broken out, altered and resubmitted. I mean how many preserved collections are truly being newly discovered in attics and yard sales anymore? Again, not that fraud didn’t exist 10 years ago but all things being equal would you feel more confident buying a higher grade card in an older slab (maybe tampered) than a new one (most likely tampered)? Is this at all a new driving force on auction prices?

Just a thought. I really don’t want to stop collecting as I’ve had so much fun the last few months getting back into it and just looking for any type of strategy to mitigate the best I can fraud in the hobby.