Grading costs as part of card's value.
 

Not really sure where to post this as it covers all eras.

How much of the cost of grading do you apply to the value of the card itself?

If you have a card that you'd value $750, and submit it to PSA, you pay $75 for the grading. Do you consider the card now worth $825?

If you don't sell it for at least $825, haven't you lost money?

I recently submitted a bulk order--$8/card, 103 cards. So that was a $824 submission, plus the shipping back and forth.

The actual set could be bought for probably less than $50. I'd also like to upgrade a few of the cards, which would require yet another bulk submission.

Someone has about 50% of a 1988 Topps set graded, the grading fees alone would be about $3,200, and that is just half the set.

In both cases above, I would think there is zero chance to recoup the grading costs of those cards if the set is ever sold. Plus, even if I were to sell my upgraded cards on ebay for an opening bid of $8, just to not be in a hole, I would doubt they'd sell.

I get that it is a hobby and buy/do what you like, not what you think will make you money, but there has to be a point where grading costs need to be accounted for, isn't there?

It seems to me that all of your questions are rhetorical. Stick with common sense.

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Once a card has been graded and entombed in plastic it becomes one of the qualities that determine the value of a card to a prospective buyer.

To factor in what you paid to have a card graded is kind of redundant in my opinion... Seeing as in many cases the value of a card will increase based on the fact it has been graded there is your appreciation right there.

I have also bought cards in my lifetime for less than it cost to have had a card graded in the first place. Someone lost money in that transaction but it wasn’t me?

It’s like when you go to trade your car in on a new one you try to shine it up and clean it up to make it look as good as possible to achieve the highest value. This is what a graded card is! Literally and figuratively these days apparently!

It sounds like you want the increased value of a graded card in addition to the actual cost of having the card graded

This makes me smile:). Your $ 50.00 set of cards is still a $ 50.00 set of cards whether you spent $ 800+ having them graded or not. Unless your sending your cards to a card doctor before grading, you didn't change one thing about the card itself, except to have it "entombed" with someone's guess as to what it's grade is. It is still the same $ 50.00 set of cards, when you go to sell them, all your really going to find out is how much someone else is willing to pay for the pieces of plastic over the value of the cards, they are still $ 50.00 cards though. I assume you are participating in the "Registry", so you should count these grading expenses as a "cost of participation" in PSA's FREE registry.

I'm not following the Rascal. Graded cards have several advantages over raw cards, especially for new or part-time enthusiasts: less chance counterfeit, more easily handled and stored with less risk of deteriorating, and some assurance regarding the quality level of the appearance of the card. That has to have a positive effect on auction prices.

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Don’t grade your cards it’s a rigged/fraud filled system.

Keep and Enjoy them Raw :-)

Sometimes it goes DOWN

All these long time collectors and NR-MT raw cards might have altered or trimmed cards. When they come back graded properly as such, their perspective value is now lower.

To each, the price one will pay is the value regardless of assigned Third party grade.

It really depends on the set and the grade the company gives it. A modern card that does not get a perfect 10 will more than likely cost you money you will never recoup. Now if that same card gets the magical 10 it just paid to grade several to several 100 cards.

The answer is 0.00

I didn't say graded cards don't have value in the grading of them, but just because the card is in a plastic slab does not change the inherent value of the piece of card board. It is still the same card, and yes people do pay more for the card in plastic, but the amount they are willing to pay above the value of the card is what they are willing to pay for the piece of mind for the plastic holder.

New/Novice collectors are what really make the whole TPG model work for low dollar cards, because they are willing to pay more for piece of mind than an experienced collector will, and that slab gives them that piece of mind. An experienced collector will look at a $ 200.00 T-206 raw card and know what to look for to see if a card has been trimmed or altered, and grade the card for themselves. A novice collect is a lot less apt to buy the same raw card, but instead opt for an TPG graded example over the raw example, thus placing more value on the plastic.

Not the equivalent, but people who have a print or photo expensively framed often want people to pay for the frame, but collectors will only pay for the value of the photo.

Some junk era cards won't be worth the cost of grading unless they get a 10. Others perhaps not at all. I would guess most cards from the 88 Topps set would fall into the second category.

Can you accurately assign a raw card a 7 grade? How about an 8 or 9? How accurate were your "guesses" on the 103 cards that you submitted?

That is what you are paying for - a widely accepted 3rd Party opinion of the raw card that you send them and some validation of your ability to accurately assign a grade

I'm thinking :

1) It takes a long long time of looking at raw cards and the resulting TPG opinions before you can develop a fairly consistent eye.

2) TPG grading should probably reserved for raw vintage - I don't quite get the thought process of submitting common "shiney shit"

3) The difference in $ value between a vintage 7 and a vintage 8 is usually pretty significant.

4) Whether or not you intend to sell your collection is mostly irrelevant as at some point - someone is going to sell. If not you then most likely your immediate family.

I prefer to buy raw cards that I believe are under graded and thus under valued. Typically a 3rd Party opinion of those raw cards then gives me a way of sorta "keeping score".

https://forums.collectors.com/discus...ss-psa-10-sets

There is a reason that the guy in the thread above (who claims to be going for all PSA 10 sets throughout the 80s and various manufacturers has never actually sent one of his "raw gem mint" cards in for grading. It's a completely money-losing proposition for these types of cards.

There are many times when a graded card will devaluate the card from raw. One is for mid-grade 50s-60s cards. Those are readily available in lower grades and while you might pay $8 for a nice looking NM card, if it is actually graded a PSA 7, it might not sell for $8. Same for cards with qualifiers like ST (stain), MK (mark), OC (off-center), etc. Many collectors will completely ignore nice cards with the Scarlet Letters of qualifiers.

Now there are millions of examples of PSA/SGC/BGS cards greatly increasing in price because of the grade given, but hopefully we've all learned enough in the past year that nobody really trusts these companies to tell which cards are actually altered, or can give them a specific, repeatable grade. As such, I've stopped submitting to PSA whereas I used to send them hundreds of cards in bulk each of the past five years. I am selling off most of my graded card collection because of how jaded I am with their response to being proven incompetent.

But a card is worth what it is once it is graded; your sunk grading costs are baked into the price of whatever someone will already pay you, and they won't be adding an additional $$ just because that's what it cost you.

+1

To me personally it actually lowers the value. I would rather purchase an ungraded $50 set than graded because of the time it takes to crack them out (don't have the space nor desire to store tons of low value graded cards). I spent a couple hours last week releasing some 1953 Topps so I could put them in my binder and it's kind of a pain in the arse. Just keep in mind that you could have a really nice $800 card in addition to that $50 set.

http://www.collectingbrooklyn.com/net54/1953set.jpg

Same here...

Even though it's relatively easy to crack them out, I am still nervous every time I do it. Much prefer buying them raw to begin with. But inevitably, sometimes the card you want resides in one of those ugly god-awful and randomly numbered bar-coded slabs.

I agree with the following already said:
1) only grade vintage
2) don't grade every card in a set, only the ones with potential
3) grade for pleasure

I collect raw cards. But I am beginning to collect more vintage. Many vintage sets have been reproduced, increasing the chances you come across a counterfeit if you don't know what to look for. I will grade my pre-war vintage so when I sell them the buyer won't question authenticity. It will make the transaction more pleasant.

Here's another thought, similar, but about framing. I collect Cincinnati Reds. I had a beautiful full page color ad of Ewell Blackwell and a 3x5 signed card. I wanted them framed. The signature and Wheaties ad cost me $30. The framing cost me $85. Nobody collects Blackwell now, nor will anyone in the foreseeable future. That is a cost I accepted so that I could display the piece for my pleasure. I don't think about the lost cost when I look at it, I think about its beauty. Can you look at a graded card the same way? If you can't, maybe you shouldn't grade.
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I was wrestling with this as well.

I'm trying to strike a balance between having a collection that I want, and not missing out on a collection that is twice as large because I graded things that didn't really warrant it.

But, having a bunch of cheap cards around to fill out a bulk submission isn't a bad thing, either. Submitting 80 cards at 10 bucks is the same as 100 at 8, might as well do the 100.

Why would anyone in their right mind grade a 1988 Topps? Even when graded it is still a penny card, if that.

I think it goes towards personal accomplishment more than anything else. I love those old tobacco non sports sets, but they have virtually no value. I am, however, grading one set of like 45 cards.

Here is that person's 1988 Topps set, all time best for what it's worth . . .

https://www.psacard.com/psasetregist...timeset/221017

And only $7600 in grading fees to go.

I gotta get in on this somehow.

Absolutely nothing against the set as I like and used to collect '70s cards. However, I remember years back when I read someone post on the PSA forum that he was going accumulate the entirely graded 1977 Topps set, and I thought that was about the dumbest thing I'd ever heard. And the guy was boasting about it.

P.s. That a lot of people do the same stupid thing doesnt make it less stupid. The Three Stooges were a trio.

I also remember many years back when someone said his card was "Gem Mint," and I thought he was making a joke.

Well, he's presumably using the $8/card bulk special.

He only has 32 cards so far. Maybe he does other sets to qualify for the bulk rate, or goes in a group sub?

That's still a bit over 6K left to go at the bulk rate.

Probably enough to buy... all the 80's sets, and probably all the 70's too.

On the first page; his set is 47% complete. So he's already got almost 400 cards graded out of 792.

You keep telling yourself that and some of it might even come true.

Doug "the people who get paid for opinions give you nothing in return but an opinion" Goodman

I totally missed that it had pages. :o

I mostly did SGC, and back when it worked the registry listings didn't have pages. Yeah, that's my excuse... weak as it is...

what about stop submitting all together or do you enjoy supporting a fraudulent broken operation and getting your teeth kicked in? Frankly, I think this is the dumbest thing I have heard in quite a while.