To Grade or not to Grade ?

[Mickey Mays]

PSA is running a special this month for members, $6/card minimum 25 cards, no card over $100.

Can anyone offer advice about whether to have card graded or keep raw ? For resale, if your card does not grade a PSA 7 or higher it seems like your better off not grading it and selling it raw.

Thoughts ?

Thanks !!

[bnorth]

It really depends on the player and year of the card(s). As a guideline what you posted is spot on about PSA 7 or better.

[swarmee]

It really depends. There are plenty of cards that would benefit from grading just to confirm authenticity.
When I'm looking for cards to grade, I put them in a couple of different piles.
1) Part of sets I'm working on in a reasonable condition (as in, I'm not going to find a better one for cheap within a year or two).
2) Cards that would go up in value about $20 (3x grading fee) compared to raw.
3) Cards that are rare, bizarre, or reprinted enough that the average collector would rather have a graded card because that means it's been authenticated.

I still have some "gem mint" (to me) 1981 Topps Basketball cards that I haven't sent in, because unless they get 10s, they won't have been worth grading. Since I'm not working on the set, I've never sent them in.

[Bestdj777]

Originally Posted by Mickey Mays

PSA is running a special this month for members, $6/card minimum 25 cards, no card over $100.

Can anyone offer advice about whether to have card graded or keep raw ? For resale, if your card does not grade a PSA 7 or higher it seems like your better off not grading it and selling it raw.

Thoughts ?

Thanks !!

I've have just started getting anything "unusual" graded. I have a number of Venezuelans, and, given that many people don't know what they are, I feel better having them in holders.

[jchcollins]

Raw cards that have been in my collection for some time and I have no plans to sell will not get graded. The only time I ever sent in "keeper" cards for grading was more than 10 years ago when it was still a fairly new concept to me, and I was just curious. I sent some '56 Topps cards in to SGC. I do look for graded cards just for peace of mind when buying online, but as far as professional grading just for it's own sake goes, I'm not really a fanatic. PSA, SGC, and BVG - despite being decades in now and contrary to some people's opinion - can still be very subjective when it comes to grading (or in PSA's case, where standards seem to change over time...) and they still make mistakes - sometimes large ones - all the time. I don't claim to be any kind of expert on paper stock or aging or anything else that would go into grading - but I've been collecting cards for 30 years and have not yet found reason to believe that any "professional" grader has any additional grand insight over and above mine when it comes to evaluating cards based on accepted guidelines. They may see way more in terms of volume of cards, and their opinions may be different, but that doesn't mean they are more valid.

Just my opinion. What I get for coming into the hobby and actually caring about grading in the days before PSA existed.

PS - just to clarify - professional graders I think DO have additional insight over and above my own analysis if you care about things that can only be seen under a blacklight, etc. I generally don't...

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[hangman62]

depends

[Exhibitman]

I mostly send in stuff I want to sell, stuff I think is really nice and has a legit shot at a very high grade, or stuff that I am afraid of damaging if I leave it raw. This was a raw purchase sent in on a $6 special:



On the other hand, so was this:



Probably shouldn't have bothered but I'd had it since I was 15 and sentiment got the better of me.