Posted By:
MWMarc --
Let's say you are an experienced hobby veteran who sells both graded and ungraded cards and I'm a novice who's interested in buying graded material. Imagine the following dialogue:
MW: "Hi Marc! I really like the idea of buying graded cards. What can you tell me about them?"
Marc: "Well, there are many different grading companies, but for vintage cards, I would highly recommend SGC."
MW: "Sounds great! How does this grading thing work?"
Marc: "Well...a company such as SGC receives a group of cards from collectors or dealers and evaluates them based on condition. If the card is unaltered, then they encapsulate it and assign a grade to it."
MW: "So cards that are trimmed or bleached or repapered don't get graded."
Marc: "Well...SGC actually grades those too. They're just labeled differently."
MW: "So let me get this straight -- a grading company at first rejects a group of cards and then decides to encapsulate and grade them?"
Marc: "Yes."
MW: "Do other companies grade altered cards?"
Marc: "Well, yes. PRO, ASA and NASA among others."
MW: "So these are good companies too?"
Marc: "No. Companies that grade altered cards are not popular with serious collectors."
MW: "Then why should I trust a company that puts altered cards in holders? How do I know that some of the altered cards aren't getting in the unaltered holders? This makes me nervous."
Marc: "But encapsulating altered cards is a good thing. Otherwise they'd never be graded."
MW: "Isn't that the point?"