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Originally Posted by mferronibc
So I’ve been sort of getting back into collecting this past year. Full honesty, started with some higher grade PSA 7-8 cards, nothing over a few hundred bucks- mainly late issue HOFers or Leaders cards. After spending a lot of time on here reading about the current state of professional grading and thinking more about what it is that really excites me about collecting I am more and more testing the waters with raw cards. I find this much more rewarding so far trying to sift through cards I actually want that look to be reasonable bargains based on their condition than simply a “set price” based on a PSA number and previous auction prices. The questions I have are:
1) Is it a fair assumption that when you see a nice looking card from these big volume raw sellers, they have already determined the card is not worth the additional $20 (or $8) to have it graded and possibly sell it for more. I.e. most of these cards even if they look great would probably grade out like sub-4 even if the pics make them look better?
2) Finding the variability with photos kinda frustrating. As someone advised me before, so you just have to be committed to the fact that some of these purchases will have to be returned if the card looks much worse when you get it in hand? Would you then be very suspicious of sellers who state a no return policy?
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I believe the answer to #1 is a mixed bag. Some sellers would feel the card is not worth grading, others feel that grading might not increase the value enough to cover the expense + effort involved, and others probably just are not into grading, period. I've found some really great raw cards lately, that are actually better than the sellers have portrayed/described.
Regarding question #2... While I'm leery of sellers who have "no return" policies, you are covered by eBay and PayPal (if applicable). Every now and then, you'll get a raw card with an unwelcome "surprise", but I have found it to be very rare. One of the keys is to ask a lot of questions up-front. You can tell pretty quickly if the seller is forthright, based off their communications. If they are too brief or tardy with their replies, it's probably a red flag, or a sign to refrain.
But if they are prompt to help out and thoroughly answer your concerns, I think you can be pretty confident. I always ask about my personal pet-peeve, which are creases / surface wrinkles (that often don't show on the scans). If they reply definitively that there are no surface wrinkles, I can feel very confident in bidding (especially given eBay's Buyer Protection). Just my 2 cents, and perhaps others have had different experiences. Hope this helps.