Grading Rainbows
 

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/654...y-sanders-psa/

Is anybody putting together a "Grading Rainbow"?

No, it's an asinine concept. Just collect raw instead of doing that.

Hmmmmm, I dunno. Maybe this fellow here might be interested:

https://toybook.com/wp-content/uploa...-942x1024.webp

You do have to admit that Rainbow Brite is kinda cool.

:cool:

Yep pretty stupid - People are paying more for grade 1, 2, 3 than they are for grade 6, 7, 8

It might be the ultimate example of "buy the grade, not the card." A few months ago I was thinking it would be a good play to buy a bunch of ex-mt 89 UD Ken Griffeys and crumple them up to varying degrees, and send them into PSA to get a bunch of 1s, 1.5s, 2s etc. This is a card that is a big target of the grading rainbow philosophy. But alas I am not that enterprising.

Somebody else surely did this and I expect the pop of low grade 89 Griffeys to increase if they haven't already.

The article says that if they think the card was intentionally damaged to get a low grade, it will likely receive an A instead.

Not sure how they will be able to determine intent to damage, but ok.

That's a joke. But seriously - how many true PSA 1 89 UD Griffeys can actually be out there - I mean, UD was out of the price range of most younger collectors (it was for me and was in college) and most of them were pulled immediately, even if grading wasn't thing yet.

I had never heard of Grading Rainbows or considered such a thing before seeing the article. In fact, I don't pay any attention to post-1975 cards, which is apparently where the phenomenon has taken root. But it struck a chord with me because I had gotten in the habit of bidding on cards that I thought had great eye appeal for players I collect from sets that typically struggle to be well centered without help from a card doctor.

So, it turns out that I have a few partial "rainbows". For example, here's a 1952 Topps Minnie Minoso mini-rainbow:

I posted this before, and haven't added any since...but it's been fun. Missed out on a really nice 5 for a solid deal recently as I took my eye off. Honestly, as I have said before...when your a set collector who has all the sets they want and that thrill of the chase is basically gone...you need to get creative! I'm in agreement that it's totally silly with modern...BUT I have learned in the collecting world, to each their own. That's what's great about this hobby, there are a zillion ways to collect and I respect anyone who is happy having fun in this hobby.

https://i.ibb.co/twpx6PpF/55-Harmons.jpg


This has always been my favorite card of my favorite player...I've toyed with rainbow collecting all his base Topps cards...but common sense always prevails...haha...

Are you trying to get all the half-point grades as well? That should be called a "super-rainbow" or something.

Ha..not sure it's so "super", but yeah considering I'll probably never get above a 7...