Will the grotesque rise in grading costs eventually translate to higher prices?

[mrreality68]

Grading cards will always be big business especially as new money and inexperienced collectors get into collecting/investing.
Since they will not have experience they are going to gravitate more towards graded cards (especially the more the cards are worth)
However, For the people doing sets they will only either 1. Buy cards already graded or 2. they will only get graded cards that have higher values that makes it worth getting graded and the more common cards in the set will be left ungraded.
Most of the new money and collectors do not seem to be going for complete sets(unless buying unopened boxes and cases of cards) and are going more for the famous players, HOF'ers etc

Hopefully the grading prices will go down over time. But I do not see it unless there is a big drop off in volume because big business is always moving up prices and always looking at Year over Year Comps in Sales. If you drop the prices for grading (vs the higher prices the year before) you actually have to grade alot more cards to make up for the difference lost from each cards lower grading fee

[Yoda]

I think collectors will be far more selective about which cards to submit for grading. Given the price increases and the time lag, it just might not be economical to do so unless they think card prices will rise forever. Which I doubt.

[packs]

The new most annoying phrase in the hobby will become “it cost me X to get this graded” which will replace the dreaded “I’m into it for X. I can’t do less than Y”

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by packs

The new most annoying phrase in the hobby will become “it cost me X to get this graded” which will replace the dreaded “I’m into it for X. I can’t do less than Y”

LOL. When's the last time you heard, I am only into it for X, so you can have it for Y even though market is much higher.

[Casey2296]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

LOL. When's the last time you heard, I am only into it for X, so you can have it for Y even though market is much higher.

That's usually reserved for mutual friend collectors helping each other out.

[Mark17]

When I buy GU flannels, they sometimes come with a LOA from a TPG like SGC or MEARS or Bill Henderson. But sometimes they just come with a letter from the AH. For example, I recently got several jerseys from Hunt and they came with their letter. I trust Hunt, so that's good enough for me.

I think the same could be done with cards. Reputable auction houses, of which there are at least a dozen well-known ones, could slab the cards they sell with their own guarantee of authenticity. They might not want to absolutely guarantee no alterations, as they can be very difficult to identify sometimes, and they may or may not want to assign grades. But they could at least assure the buyer they are genuine.

If I'm buying a card that Hunt, or LOTG, or REA, or Lelands, etc., etc. says is real, I would have the comfort level required to bid strongly. Same goes with Greg Morris, Chandy Greenholt, and many other dealers.

So, just as an AH will give me their letter on a GU jersey, I'd love to see them do their own card slabbing on higher end cardboard.

[Mike D.]

I think they bring back the value and quarterly specials at some point, for the set collectors and registry junkies.

Actually, I think they’ve said they’re extending collectors club memberships until not only value is back, but that you get as money months of “value” as you’d have had if they hadn’t shut it down.

[BobC]

Originally Posted by Mark17

When I buy GU flannels, they sometimes come with a LOA from a TPG like SGC or MEARS or Bill Henderson. But sometimes they just come with a letter from the AH. For example, I recently got several jerseys from Hunt and they came with their letter. I trust Hunt, so that's good enough for me.

I think the same could be done with cards. Reputable auction houses, of which there are at least a dozen well-known ones, could slab the cards they sell with their own guarantee of authenticity. They might not want to absolutely guarantee no alterations, as they can be very difficult to identify sometimes, and they may or may not want to assign grades. But they could at least assure the buyer they are genuine.

If I'm buying a card that Hunt, or LOTG, or REA, or Lelands, etc., etc. says is real, I would have the comfort level required to bid strongly. Same goes with Greg Morris, Chandy Greenholt, and many other dealers.

So, just as an AH will give me their letter on a GU jersey, I'd love to see them do their own card slabbing on higher end cardboard.

Problem is that cards are so much more dependent on condition in determing value, and almost everything is sold online anymore so you can't always get the sense of what a card's condition and worth is from a scan. If not for the internet and Ebay, not so sure grading would be as important as it is today.

[Eric72]

Originally Posted by Mark17

…just as an AH will give me their letter on a GU jersey, I'd love to see them do their own card slabbing on higher end cardboard.

Doesn’t Goldin do this now?

[packs]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

LOL. When's the last time you heard, I am only into it for X, so you can have it for Y even though market is much higher.

I just hate hearing what you paid for it at all. Not something I take into consideration when buying.

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by packs

The new most annoying phrase in the hobby will become “it cost me X to get this graded” which will replace the dreaded “I’m into it for X. I can’t do less than Y”

But true. What you are into a card for always is irrelevant because the comparison is with what is available on the market. In this situation I could see a rising premium for graded vintage HOFers who aren't 10s or Mantles simply because the inventory cannot be replaced cheaply, even if the set thing goes by the wayside.

Johnny is right about this thing of ours losing its blue collar echelon, though. I would even suggest that it is going beyond white collar into the professional or entrepreneurial or financial classes when it comes to an increasing number of cards and sets.

[jingram058]

Johnny is right about this thing of ours losing its blue collar echelon, though. I would even suggest that it is going beyond white collar into the professional or entrepreneurial or financial classes when it comes to an increasing number of cards and sets.

I could not agree more.

[CK]

I don’t think the prices have risen for that reason, not yet anyways, I’m sure they will.

Keep in mind, there are still a lot of cards sitting in various stages of the grading process that were submitted under quarterly grading specials in Q2/Q3 of last year at ~$8-9 for bulk submissions. The owners of those cards could afford to sell theirs cheaper if they chose to do so, but going forward, selling low grade graded commons just won’t make sense unless the floor $ of the cards increase.

Soon the prices will rise. I doubt that set collecting will die off, but the average GPA of sets will increase. Some commons cards can justify a $30 grading fee if they’re in good enough condition. If you want to complete a set you’ll either have to find old slabs at inflated prices or have a card good enough to justify the “exorbitant” fee. Building a “cheap” set of GD-VG cards probably won’t be a simple process. Less set volume but higher quality is my guess.