Who's Cracking $250 Slabs?

[frankbmd]

We generally agree that people (collectors and flippers) buy numbers (grades & pops), which require an opinion (not necessarily accurate) and results in the card being placed in a slab.

Many collectors here and elsewhere abhor tombs and take pride in their practice of cracking cards out of slabs for their binders and collections immediately after purchase.

Clearly without the tomb and the number resale value is compromised in the marketplace. The TPGs are fortunately positioned ideally in this apparent conundrum and more than willing to grade the card again at the time of the next sale.

At $250 a pop, I do not think that flippers are doing a lot of cracking, unless of course they are intending to "fix" the card to attain a higher number and this no doubt happens quite frequently.

Given the rapidly escalating grading fees are collectors still as willing to crack every slab they see. I doubt it, but I could be wrong.

Does it make sense to grade a $30 card for $250 so you can sell it for $100? I may not be up to date on the new math, but this method does not seem sustainable.

I would hazard a guess that historically the majority of existing graded cards are worth less than the current price of grading. Are the TPGs shooting themselves in the foot or are their new fee scales designed to offset the grading of trivial cards (a waste of time) and designed to maintain or grow their income in the age of vault flippers?

It would seem advisable that those collectors with a substantial numbers of low value slabs, due to condition or no-name, should not crack their slabs. You can't afford to regrade them when you are ready to sell.

Times have certainly changed. Have I got it all wrong? Educate me.

[Casey2296]

I'm a little strange because the only thing I care about is how my collection looks to me. I'll pay up for pre-war green label SGC slabs, Lionel and Nagy are a plus.
I cross all my pre war PSA to SGC, I like my post war in PSA slabs.
I also 100% support collectors who want to break everything out, it's their collection and that's what they want it to be, and let's face it, our collections are a very personal thing immaterial of financial considerations.

[tiger8mush]

some recent low $ cracks ...

[BobC]

Always figured when buying an already graded card that part of what I paid was for the grading fee. To then crack the card out always seemed like throwing money away to me. So I leave everything in their slabs and for sets/cards I put in binders I make a colored copy (front and back) of any slabbed cards I'd purchased and simply cut them out and put those in the binders. The cost of making a color copy is a heck of a lot cheaper than the grading fee for a card. That way there are no holes in the collection and I can just store the graded cards somewhere separately.

[midmo]

I'm not a big fan of grading but I get it, although I never understood why people grade cheap cards (say under $100 give or take). I almost always break those out and put them in binders or top loaders if for no other reason than the storage space issue. I bought a large lot last year and there were some low grade (PSA 2 & 3) 1955 commons. Why would anybody waste their money doing that? I just don't have the room or desire to deal with hundreds of slabs.

I have broken out higher priced cards (T3's, T5's, etc), but I slowed down after I bent a Jackie Robinson when I was cracking out my '53 set to put in a binder. Don't watch tv while cracking slabs...


1953set.jpg

[doug.goodman]

I buy things I like for prices I like, and anything in a slab is removed moments after I open the box.

[ISURedbird]

Originally Posted by BobC

Always figured when buying an already graded card that part of what I paid was for the grading fee. To then crack the card out always seemed like throwing money away to me. So I leave everything in their slabs and for sets/cards I put in binders I make a colored copy (front and back) of any slabbed cards I'd purchased and simply cut them out and put those in the binders. The cost of making a color copy is a heck of a lot cheaper than the grading fee for a card. That way there are no holes in the collection and I can just store the graded cards somewhere separately.

This is brilliant! Never thought of doing that.

Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk

[JollyElm]

Sorry for the jaded bitterness, but there certainly is a scenario that makes sense if you're a scumbag.
(Apologies if someone has already covered this.)

You send in a noteworthy card because it looks beautiful and will 'obviously' receive a high(ish) grade. You pay the usurious fee, and SURPRISE!! the card comes back at a much lower number than you thought possible. What to do now???

Crack it out and start bullsh*tting to potential buyers that this card looks beautiful, but you don't feel like spending the money and waiting a year for the card to come back graded, so you're going to sell it ungraded. Look, it's the correct size and wasn't trimmed. No problems here. If you convince someone to buy it off of you for more than it cost you originally (plus the big grading fee), then you are in the black. If your BS-quotient is top notch, then you may convince a person to pay an amount closer to what it 'should' be worth (based on the grade it was supposed to get) and you're in the money!!!

[BobC]

Originally Posted by ISURedbird

This is brilliant! Never thought of doing that.

Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk

And in addition to cutting out the card copy, I'll also cut out the actual flip and put it in the binder sheet as well. Adds to the identification of the card, and since I put the fronts and backs of the card copies in penny sleeves before putting them in binders (helps to hold them in place so they don't move around) I stick the cut out copy of the flip in the penny sleeve as well. Fits real nice and snug in the reguler sized penny sleeves, which you can just slide into the binder pages then.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by frankbmd

Does it make sense to grade a $30 card for $250 so you can sell it for $100? I may not be up to date on the new math, but this method does not seem sustainable.

Volume man, volume...

[Exhibitman]

Once the dead puppy of cheap older submissions works its way through the PSA python and is excreted out there will be a drought of lower price slabs.