Grading raw vintage cards for trade or resale purposes

[StraightRaceCards]

Originally Posted by perezfan

Strongly disagree...

Yesterday's "4" (obvious creasing, paper loss, round corners, heavy soiling, dull color, poor registration):

https://www.ebay.com/itm/145235228744


Today's "4" (no creasing or wrinkles, no paper loss, no soiling, good corners, great color and registration):

https://www.ebay.com/itm/375976800862

Make no mistake... The grading standards have changed by 2-3 full points over the past decade.

Totally agree here.

I think there is definitely an opportunity to capitalize on buying nice raw cards if you can score a deal and grade them.

As a collector with a more limited budget in mind, this has allowed me to pick up a few nicer copies of cards with an overall less price after grading compared to buying a card straight up.

That being said you definitely are hoping graders grade consistently which can be a problem.

I’m not the best at eyeballing cards, but I stick to the motto of, “what would be the worst grade this card could feasibly get” and use that to ballpark comps of raw cards + $15 for SGC grading