Help/Advice buying ungraded vs. graded

[ullmandds]

personally i do not like sending cards in to be graded...it can take a long time...esp w/psa and it's expensive.

compare the time and costs involved in purchasing raw vs graded. if you're confident you are buying what u think u r in raw form(ie...not altered/fake) and the saving is worth more than the time and cost in sending in to psa...then do it.

question...what type of grades are u looking to buy? i don't know much about the registries but i'd assume the better the grade the more points. if u are looking for mid-high grade id strongly consider buying already graded from sgc or psa or maybe beckett as there is a much higher likelihood they are unaltered...although all have faltered...PSA seemingly the most often.

[Mountaineer1999]

Thanks for the feedback. I will be trying to build a mid grade set, especially on the earlier cards and the newer hofers will be high grade. Ive been staring at these cards most of the day trying to come up with a game plan. It seems it may be better to buy them already graded but each card may need to be researched individually to see which way is best.

[bwbc917]

My recent experience with raw cards is that there are very few "high" (7-9) left out there. When I put together a 1960 set most of what I found would grade a 5 or 6. Over time you develop an eye for what you like as far as corners, centering etc. Then the question of grading comes in. I prefer SGC over PSA. I just don't like all the OC, MK etc and I think they do take longer.

When it does come time to grade, try to take advantage of the bulk offers. If you are not buying the rookies and don't have Mantle and the other biggies you should be able to take advantage.

[pokerplyr80]

If you're trying to build a PSA registry set I recommend buying cards already PSA graded. You could get lucky buying raw cards or BVG/SGC cards and crossing them. But that would have to work more often than not to make up for grading costs and the times that it doesn't work. I don't like those odds in the long run.

If you are able to find nice cards for the grade in old PSA cases you would send them in for a review and new holder, and maybe you'll get lucky and get a bump. Even if you don't, you'll still have a nice looking card for your run.

[drcy]

Don't do the registry.

[glchen]

If you buy raw, you'll need to factor in a cost of ~$10 per card for grading if it has a declared value of $100 or less. This is factoring in shipping both ways and assuming you send in a submission >= 25 cards. I like the registry. It's a nice checklist so you can quickly see what cards you need and you don't need to be involved in the competition aspect. Another thing in favor of buying cards already graded is that many people over grade their raw cards when they first submit. There are all if these threads on the board about cards that were vastly over graded but that's usually the exception.

[Mountaineer1999]

Great points, thanks for the feedback! After looking through raw cards one by one, each have their issues as stated and will most likely only garner a low grade, even though the seller lists the card as mt or nrmt. With that i am going to concentrate on mostly if not all cards that are already graded.
And as far as the registry goes, I use it mainly as a checklist too, I also like the uniformity of having them all PSA slabbed.