I give up on grading

[Archive]

Posted By: brian p

People who believe in the accuracy of vintage population reports probably haven't been in the vintage hobby for long. Collecting vintage cards didn't just spring up with the advent of grading companies; trust me, there are plenty of collectors out there who have never used a grading company, who gave up on the hobby years ago, etc. Also sometimes on this board I think there is a tendency to believe that we board contributors are the only collectors who are interested in these cards, while there are countless lurkers and plenty of people who have never heard of this board. I am a low grade collector, never used a grading company, but after over twenty years of collecting damn if I don't got a handful of cards that would top the grading charts. Do I plan on getting them graded? No. Maybe when it comes time to sell 30-40 years down the road, but until then they and my other cards stay free of any population reports. I think population charts will only be closer to an accurate indication of condition availabilty of a particular card in about that time frame, when cards from long time collectors have filtered through the system, and then at this time sadly the real condition rarity will be the vintage card that is not suffocating between slabs of plastic.

Brian