Just my thoughts on graded cards

[Archive]

Posted By: David B

I'm new to the board and I'm sure that card grading has been discussed here to exhaustion, but I felt like I had to put in my 2 cents. Bob was nice enough to recently send me a copy of the article on grading from VCBC #7 (thank you, Bob). Very interesting and, as far as I'm concerned, right on the money. I was just reading the thread begun by Travis on "best card find for the value". I noticed several people purchased graded cards, broke them open, re-submitted them to another grading service, and had them come back with a higher grade. With the higher grade, the cards were worth considerably more. But isn't this just a sham? What is the true value anyway? Was the card originally undervalued, or after re-grading is it now overvalued? Who's to say? Someone even mentioned sending in a trimmed card to SGC and having it come back with a grade. This is why I almost never buy graded cards. About the only times I've done so was to make sure an often counterfeited card was authentic (but even then, is that really a guarantee?). It seems to me the only winners when it comes to graded cards are the grading services. Although they are harder and harder to find, I'll continue to search out ungraded vintage cards for my collection.