We don't need no stinkin' slabs!!!

[Shoebox]

Originally Posted by JollyElm

You're obviously just a dick, Mrs. Kettle. Get a freaking life.

If that was how it appeared then sorry. Just intended ad a good natured jab acknowledging I may have whined a bit but I figured you could admit that the original post is a soapbox. I am still relatively new to posting here and still trying to find my way. Not looking for some sort of pissing match so will do what I should have done before just move along.

[steve B]

Originally Posted by Shoebox

If that was how it appeared then sorry. Just intended ad a good natured jab acknowledging I may have whined a bit but I figured you could admit that the original post is a soapbox. I am still relatively new to posting here and still trying to find my way. Not looking for some sort of pissing match so will do what I should have done before just move along.

Awww... Don't worry Dustin, I think most of us took that as it was intended. A bit of back and forth can be fun, but we all have different tolerances for it.

As far as the whole graded/not graded thing goes, I'm somewhat ambivalent about it. The bulk of my collection isn't graded, and at least in the pre 1980 category really shouldn't be. P-F through G-vg is a pretty easy call for nearly everyone I have had a few of my prewar cards graded. I don't know if my daughters will be interested, and even if they are having the nicer ones done is pretty reasonable. It's nice having a few T cards I can let them look at without worrying that the card will get totally destroyed. And if they're not interested, selling them will be easier and probably get them a better return.

I do enjoy sometimes just going through a stack of old cards for the feel of it. My sense of smell isn't all that good, and it takes a LOT of old cardboard to make it register. (More than I own.) Then I'm torn between nostalgia and wondering about what's breaking down to cause the smell.

I know some of it is a feeling that slabs make the condition more important than the card, and that the difference in price bugs some people. All in all it's just a different version of being grumpy about rising prices of any kind. I'd love to be able to buy stuff for what It cost when I started, but higher prices have probably made a lot of great stuff available or saved it from being tossed out altogether.

I think there's room in the hobby for all of it. There's so many different ways people collect I really don't see it as more than just another different way.

I'll put away my soapbox for now......

Steve B

[pawpawdiv9]

For me..i went the graded route....so my family knows what they are and easy to look up.
They have no clue value wise, just knows if its in a display case or the safe, its worth something.
The new stuff, i just place back in their original boxes or some acrylic boxes or albulms.

[39special]

Most of my cards are not graded,but if I find a card that I want or need,that is in my price range that is graded,I buy it.The number grade means nothing to me.If the card looks good,
that's enough for me.

[JollyElm]

This thread was meant to be about the unbelievable nostalgia that comes when the wonderful aroma of old cardboard comes out. Yes, I personally hate graded cards, but I couldn't care less if other people collect them. Do whatever you want to do.

It's all about that beautiful smell released from the binder!!!!! Cardboard in all its glory.

[ALR-bishop]

I still fondly remember the bubblegum smell when openings packs and the light gum residue on those cards. I have several gum stained cards in my sets. I like having them. I collected by packs from 1957 through 1962. I then started buying cards by full series from the Card Collectors Company in NY. Loved getting those packages, but no more gum residue

[brob28]

I can still remember the distinctive aroma of gum when opening wax packs back in the mid/late seventies. After about 1979 I bought all cellos or full sets. Every once in a while I'll see a card from those times and instantly remember that smell and I'm 9 years old again on my family's porch with my shoebox of cards.

[steve B]

That makes sense, lots of nostalgia in that for sure.

That's probably why I kept the binder and pages I got in 74. Awful stuff, and I don't use it anymore, but the memories of opening packs and deciding which cards if any were in and which ones were out are fun. I only had so many pages, so the exact cards being protected varied.

Probably also the reason the 74 set is still in pages in a generic old view binder, with an old cash register tape and a boog Powell to label the set, and the Sports Illustrated from Aarons 715th in the front cover pocket.


Steve B

Originally Posted by JollyElm

This thread was meant to be about the unbelievable nostalgia that comes when the wonderful aroma of old cardboard comes out. Yes, I personally hate graded cards, but I couldn't care less if other people collect them. Do whatever you want to do.

It's all about that beautiful smell released from the binder!!!!! Cardboard in all its glory.

[clydepepper]

Am I the only one who has yielded to the temptation and taken a bite of a stick of seriously old bubble gum...and be relieved that it did not kill me?