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

[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.

[Mark17]

Originally Posted by BobC

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.

Good point. So if a reputable AH or seller offers a card and describes it as VG-EX or whatever, they could slab it with their own label and put the grade on it.

I'd pay higher for a card graded by any one of the many reputable people in this hobby/business, but buying raw online makes me somewhat nervous. And I would trust many of those sellers to do as good a job of grading as PSA.

[Exhibitman]

Most of what I buy now is unslabbed. The key, as is often repeated here, is to find a reputable dealer whose eye you trust and establish a relationship. if something gets missed, as happens, you know they'll stand behind it. I'd buy without hesitation from someone like Brian Marcy at Scottsdale, for example.

[Mark17]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

Most of what I buy now is unslabbed. The key, as is often repeated here, is to find a reputable dealer whose eye you trust and establish a relationship. if something gets missed, as happens, you know they'll stand behind it. I'd buy without hesitation from someone like Brian Marcy at Scottsdale, for example.

I agree, but when your cards are sold (by you or your heirs) the provenance is lost. If they were in a Brian Marcy slab, that assurance of genuineness would carry with the card no matter how many times it traded hands.

[Exhibitman]

Perhaps, and this is just a hypothetical, the buyers could make their own decisions?

[Mark17]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

Perhaps, and this is just a hypothetical, the buyers could make their own decisions?

Sure. But not everyone is good at spotting counterfeit or trimmed raw cards on ebay or other online listings, and that holds prices down vs. cards buyers have confidence with.

I sell original seats that came out of Metropolitan Stadium in MN, which used to be where Mall of America stands now. You might be surprised how many people buy these old seats and ask for a LOA. My first thought is, "What else could it be? If it was from County Stadium (Milwaukee) or Comiskey or Wrigley it would be worth twice as much..."

But I give them a LOA and that gives them the comfort and assurance they want. I suppose it covers them for when their neighbor sees it and says, "How do you know it's real?"

[BobC]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

Most of what I buy now is unslabbed. The key, as is often repeated here, is to find a reputable dealer whose eye you trust and establish a relationship. if something gets missed, as happens, you know they'll stand behind it. I'd buy without hesitation from someone like Brian Marcy at Scottsdale, for example.

The problem is that there is so much already graded, and more and more cards constantly being graded trying to take advantage of the recent surge in prices, that the volume of unslabbed raw vintage cards is getting smaller and smaller every day. It is getting harder to find nicer, unslabbed vintage cards for sale, especially when talking about the more desirable HOFer/star player cards. The way things are going you may end up getting stuck having to overpay for a lot of graded cards you need/want, and then make the hard decision on whether to break them out of their slabs or not. Even if you truly just collect and don't plan to ever sell, things can always change. Or if you don't sell and your time comes, do you want to leave your family like that where they have to worry about getting them graded again to maximize sales value?

[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?