Sounds like a fun time at the show. Yeah, things have changed a bit.
First question - never mind the changes, what did you get?
Anyway, I was also against grading when it started. The trims and alterations than were usually pretty obvious. Plus I figured that if someone wanted to collect they should get to know the cards. I also had some technical questions that really weren't addressed by anyone. (And mostly still haven't)
Money changed most of that. Some people that had big money to spend didn't have the time to learn. And alterations got much harder to spot. So grading mattered for some collectors. At the same time some of the stuff I learned from became much less common. Most dealers no longer had stacks of cards of all types that you could just look through and that weren't in holders of some sort. So getting to actually touch hundreds of cards from any one set to really get a feel for what real ones were like just wasn't possible.
I've started grading my nicer cards, having realized that I won't be around forever and someone may someday have to sell them without my help. The grades will hopefully make that a bit easier.
But I still don't totally understand grading. It seems clear cut, but some of the grades I've gotten are puzzling to me. It is fun though. Getting them back from grading is sort of like buying thm all over again.
Picking a direction for the collection is good. I've never been able to do it.
If the cards are expensive and in great condition grading will usually allow them to do a bit better on Ebay. More modern mid grade stuff it's a toss-up. Sometimes the extra doesn't cover the grading fee. Unless a card is the key card in a set I wouldn't bother with beaters. A creased 55 common won't be any more valuable graded, but a 55 Clemente would because buyers could eliminate questions of alterations or authenticity.
That changes for prewar cards, because there are quite a few cards that look great but have back damage that lowers the grade a lot. They do better because some people want a nice looking card and either don't care about the back as much or couldn't afford one without damage. Prewar is a whole different way of thinking.
Steve B
I also do stamps, and dabble in coins now and then. The coins have become pretty sterile, but they've been slabbing them much longer. Slabs were a reaction to a few things, one being that poor storage could change the coins look or damage it. The other being that some people were getting a coin certified and putting the cert with a lesser condition coin. They started grading stamps a few years ago, and slabs were soundly rejected. I think you can still get it done, but the acceptance wasn't there. Certificates have a long history in that hobby, as well as actually marking the item(Now frowned upon, but also a mark of something being legit. The upside down airplanes were all numbered on the back by the dealer who broke up the sheet) The same arguments against grading are going on with stamps...Like dejavu all over again.
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