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Posted By: Al C.risafulli

I realize this thread is winding down, but I thought I'd just respond to the question of how I bought vintage cards before grading, since it's a relevant question and a good one.

I've been collecting on and off since the late 70s. I discovered vintage cards and began buying T206s in the early 80s. At that time I was young, and bought all my cards from shows and card shops. I managed to accumulate whatever vintage cards I could that way, which, due partially to my budget and partially to a lack of supply, amounted to a few dozen T206s and M116s.

As my budget started to grow a little, I started finding ways to buy cards online. Initially I rejected the concept of third-party grading, because it seemed absolutely silly to me to send a card I owned to a company who would then tell me what condition it was in. I already KNEW what condition my cards were in.

But I started to see a pattern: I'd buy a card described as EX, and receive a VG card. Then I'd bring an EX card to a dealer to try and sell it or make a trade, and be told it was only VG. It seemed like my cards were one condition when I was buying them, and another condition when I was selling them.

Furthermore, I made a few purchases over eBay where I received cards in the mail that were distinctly different from the way they were described. I still remember paying for a large lot of 1953 Topps cards that were described as Near Mint, and receiving six Near Mint cards and a pile of VG-EX cards - the scan was very artfully done so that the Near Mint cards were visible, but all the others were not as clear.

The internet was a mixed blessing. It was great, because it gave me access to cards that would previously take months - or years - to find. Something like building a T205 set would have been something I'd NEVER have tried before the internet, because I would have had to search forever to find the cards. Last year I started a T205 set, and I'm about 40% done - and I probably could have had it complete if I wasn't working on so many other card-related projects at the same time, and trying to balance my expenses between them all.

The internet also gave me the ability to SELL my cards for a much higher price than before. Before, if I wanted to sell a card, I'd either have to bring it to a dealer and have him downgrade the condition of my cards and then offer me 50% of "book", or I'd have to try and find someone who was willing to buy it at a higher price. At one point I needed money quickly, and I sold a giant binder of cards from my childhood collection for $400 - cards that would have sold for ten times that if eBay existed at the time. Now, I could sell my cards to actual collectors who were willing to pay a price that was closer to what I paid in the first place. Sometimes even more.

At the same time, the internet made it easy for me to buy overgraded - or altered - or fake - cards, with very little recourse. If someone sold me a trimmed T206 or a fake N card, all I could really do was leave negative feedback for the seller- IF I bought the card on eBay. And when I had a seller tell me "That's not the card I sold you - I sold you an authentic card, and the card you're showing me is an obvious reprint," I basically stopped buying cards.

With grading, I've now got a third-party opinion. I know that if I buy an SGC 40, I can feel reasonably confident that most of the time I'm getting a card that I would describe as VG. Sure, there will be times I disagree - once in a while I get an overgraded card, and once in a while I get an undergraded card. But I can also buy a lot more cards than I could before because they're more available, and I can feel more comfortable buying higher-dollar cards based only on a scan. More importantly, I can build a type card set - something I've always wanted to do - without having to learn everything there is to know about every card issue BEFORE I buy one. In other words, I don't have to learn all about how to tell if an N28 is authentic and unaltered just so I can buy ONE for my type set.

Grading also gives me a serial number. So nobody can ever claim that the card I'm showing them is not the one they sold me. If the cert numbers match, it's the same card.

Grading also prevents - most of the time - someone from telling me that although the card was "EX" when they sold it to me, it's now "VG" when I'm trying to sell it back, or make a trade. And if I decide to sell a card, the buyer can also feel reasonably confident in what he's getting from me.

As ancillary benefits, the slab also gives me a way of protecting my cards that's much more durable than a card saver or a binder. I'm clumsy. I have shaky hands. I've dinged corners of cards just by holding them. When they're in a slab, I can't do that.

I also like the way cards look in slabs. The slabs look like frames. With my type card set, they're all different shapes and sizes - small, skinny T and E cards; fat, square R cards, large rectangular Topps issues. When I display them raw, it looks like a mess. Now, I have them all in SGC holders, lined up on shelves in order of when they were inducted in the HOF. When I sit in my office, I'm sitting right in the middle of my cards, and I can look at a few hundred of them up on my wall - they're all different shapes and sizes, but the holders tie them all together and they look great.

I even started a few registry sets - and met some dynamite people who collect the same sets as me as a result.

So that's the long and drawn-out story of what I did before grading, and why grading has made the hobby far more enjoyable for me. It has nothing to do with investing, value, or anything like that. It has everything in the world to do with consumer confidence, a more level playing field, accountability, and to a lesser extent, protection and display.

Sure, I had to change some of my own grading habits. I had to accept the fact that a card couldn't be "Near Mint" if it had paper loss on the back. I had to accept that one soft corner or a minor wrinkle had a major impact on the grade. And I also had to accept the fact that I still can't be 100% confident, because once in a while the graders miss something. But for me, grading has solved WAY more problems than it's created.

-Al