Looks VS Grade

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Posted By: Nick

When you purchase Graded T Cards do you overlook how the card Appears, and just go by the grade. Or do you take into consideration both, Looks + Grade???

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Posted By: Rob

Definitely both. You would want to make sure the item has not been misgraded. Anything that has to be done manually (humanwise) is prone to mistakes.

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Posted By: Greg Ecklund

Both, but looks are far more important for me because if I buy a slabbed card, I break it out anyway.

The numbers on the slab are a useful guide when buying cards online...I can't always see a minute crease or a small spot of paper loss from a scan, especially if a scan is small, but I will look harder if a card seems misgraded.

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Posted By: Gilbert Maines

There is no competition here. My choice is 100% looks. I will let my heirs consider grade. I buy 'em for keeps. The opinions and criteria of others I find fascinating. But I remember the difficulty I had in caring about centering and other aspects which are viewed as defects by some and characteristics by others.

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Posted By: leon

I buy on looks.....but am careful of the technical grade as that is where a lot of the value (price) is....and no matter what we say cost/value is a factor......later

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Posted By: Darren J Duet

Presentation is always key. Looks over grade.

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Posted By: Dave

I bought a T206 Matty dark cap SGC40 over a PSA4 on the same day. The two cards were within 1% of each other in price. I just liked the card better.

I will avoid bidding on cards with misregistration that I find distracting. It can be a higher grade, but it is lower in my book. I'd rather have some soft corners on a well centered card than crisp, square corners on a card with too thin a margin. Too often (for me) I find the opposite gets the better grade.

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Posted By: Brian C Daniels

eye appeal is everything. then the value in relationship to the "plastic" number. regardless of the slab grade,never buy cards that don't grab your attention.

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Posted By: pete

Im fairly new here (less than a year) why do/would someone break out a "slabbed" card?????

as for looks vs. grade...I split it about 70/30...I have to like the way it looks.
pete-

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Posted By: Scott Forrest

Why would you slab it to begin with?

The card is the same card whether or not it's in plastic; however, many cards get "prettied up" before jumping into their tombs.

If things keep going the way they are, there may be a day when collectors break cards OUT of their holders to add legitimacy to the grade given.

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Posted By: DJ

Pete makes a good point. You have to protect the cards somehow and the holders do a great job of that.

Why would anyone crack open a slabbed card only to put it into another card protector that is similar to the holder that was cracked? Unless you put them in sheets or uploaders.

DJ

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Posted By: Nick

The ONLY Reason I would crack a card out of a SLab is if I did not like the grade and I wanted to resubmit to another grader or to the same grader. Oh tisk tisk how many stories are out there about that. Getting a higher grade on a card that was graded lower or vise versa. Oh the Human Monkey Graders!!!

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Posted By: dan mckee

I have a huge box of cracked slabs. My collection is in sheets in binders. Plus I don't need someone who has been in the hobby about 15 inutes telling me what grade my card is.

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Posted By: Chuck R

I've cracked every slabbed card I've gotten (only about 20 or so). There aren't nearly as many fakes in the 30's nonsports I now collect, but I would crack the slabs anyway. This may be heresy here, but I actually like to hold the cards and I like to keep them in sheets so it's easy to see a good chunk of a set at the same time. I've been collecting baseball and nonsports cards since 1966, and like Dan I don't need much help telling a fake from a reprint or an untrimmed card from one that's trimmed.