Who's Cracking $250 Slabs?

[Casey2296]

I'm a little strange because the only thing I care about is how my collection looks to me. I'll pay up for pre-war green label SGC slabs, Lionel and Nagy are a plus.
I cross all my pre war PSA to SGC, I like my post war in PSA slabs.
I also 100% support collectors who want to break everything out, it's their collection and that's what they want it to be, and let's face it, our collections are a very personal thing immaterial of financial considerations.

[tiger8mush]

some recent low $ cracks ...

[BobC]

Always figured when buying an already graded card that part of what I paid was for the grading fee. To then crack the card out always seemed like throwing money away to me. So I leave everything in their slabs and for sets/cards I put in binders I make a colored copy (front and back) of any slabbed cards I'd purchased and simply cut them out and put those in the binders. The cost of making a color copy is a heck of a lot cheaper than the grading fee for a card. That way there are no holes in the collection and I can just store the graded cards somewhere separately.

[midmo]

I'm not a big fan of grading but I get it, although I never understood why people grade cheap cards (say under $100 give or take). I almost always break those out and put them in binders or top loaders if for no other reason than the storage space issue. I bought a large lot last year and there were some low grade (PSA 2 & 3) 1955 commons. Why would anybody waste their money doing that? I just don't have the room or desire to deal with hundreds of slabs.

I have broken out higher priced cards (T3's, T5's, etc), but I slowed down after I bent a Jackie Robinson when I was cracking out my '53 set to put in a binder. Don't watch tv while cracking slabs...


1953set.jpg

[doug.goodman]

I buy things I like for prices I like, and anything in a slab is removed moments after I open the box.

[Snowman]

I often buy slabs that look like they're undergraded. Then I'll typically crack those out and send them to a different grading company as long as I think the probability that they'll cross to a higher grade multiplied by the cost to regrade is significantly lower than what it would be worth if it achieves the grade I'm expecting.

[FrankWakefield]

I followed along with the original post through about the first half of it. Until the logic of suggesting that the folks who crack cards out of slabs are less likely to crack a card out when the cost to slab a card got to $250 a pop... For me, that's not much of a factor at all. When I break a card out it's because I don't want it in the slab. I'm not about to reslab it.

I have no intention to get a card graded at a cost of $250. But then I don't have any cards I'd get graded for $25... nor any I'd get graded for 25 cents. And not for 25 cents even if they'd come to my home or meet me at the bank with the ability to accept a card, grade it, and hand it back to me in 2 minutes or less.

For me, I'd rather spend that $250 on a few more cards. For folks who want everything graded, seems to me you'll have smaller collections and you'll be subject to the future whims of PSA and the like. Don't ya reckon?

[ISURedbird]

Originally Posted by BobC

Always figured when buying an already graded card that part of what I paid was for the grading fee. To then crack the card out always seemed like throwing money away to me. So I leave everything in their slabs and for sets/cards I put in binders I make a colored copy (front and back) of any slabbed cards I'd purchased and simply cut them out and put those in the binders. The cost of making a color copy is a heck of a lot cheaper than the grading fee for a card. That way there are no holes in the collection and I can just store the graded cards somewhere separately.

This is brilliant! Never thought of doing that.

Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk

[JollyElm]

Sorry for the jaded bitterness, but there certainly is a scenario that makes sense if you're a scumbag.
(Apologies if someone has already covered this.)

You send in a noteworthy card because it looks beautiful and will 'obviously' receive a high(ish) grade. You pay the usurious fee, and SURPRISE!! the card comes back at a much lower number than you thought possible. What to do now???

Crack it out and start bullsh*tting to potential buyers that this card looks beautiful, but you don't feel like spending the money and waiting a year for the card to come back graded, so you're going to sell it ungraded. Look, it's the correct size and wasn't trimmed. No problems here. If you convince someone to buy it off of you for more than it cost you originally (plus the big grading fee), then you are in the black. If your BS-quotient is top notch, then you may convince a person to pay an amount closer to what it 'should' be worth (based on the grade it was supposed to get) and you're in the money!!!

[BobC]

Originally Posted by ISURedbird

This is brilliant! Never thought of doing that.

Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk

And in addition to cutting out the card copy, I'll also cut out the actual flip and put it in the binder sheet as well. Adds to the identification of the card, and since I put the fronts and backs of the card copies in penny sleeves before putting them in binders (helps to hold them in place so they don't move around) I stick the cut out copy of the flip in the penny sleeve as well. Fits real nice and snug in the reguler sized penny sleeves, which you can just slide into the binder pages then.

[Tao_Moko]

I care about the hobby that's brought me pleasure for nearly 4 decades, not a piece of plastic.. There's no reason that graded cards should demand more than a slight premium for authentication. I don't pay for more than that so irrelevant to me. The slabs are unattractive, represent a flawed industry and an unwarranted inflation of value. It's unlikely I buy graded cards worth less than $250. They all get busted.

[commishbob]

If a card is bought for one of my binder Ed vintage set it gets broken out of the slab no matter the cost. ‘67 Seaver and Carew rookies are the latest examples of these. Prewar graded cards will stay in the slab only because most I buy are lower grade and I figure they should be protected.