PRO mentioned in Beckett Vintage

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Posted By: Chris S.

I didn't mean to imply that the reason I don't collect graded cards was because of the incident I mentioned. That was just a few years ago; I decided to leave graded cards alone a long time before that.

Don't get me wrong...I see the value of having your cards graded. It's great to have a way of assigning a precise condition to cards where an EX/NrMt will be hundreds of dollars more expensive than an EX. It beats a buyer and seller haggling over the most minute details. It's also great if you have a top-condition card from a set (like '71 Topps) that's easily damaged. In that case, having the card encapsulated gives better protection than a top loader.

At the present time, I have no use for either of those types of cards. My '71 Topps set is only partially filled, and I'm not condition-conscious until I have the set and work on upgrading it; furthermore, my current budget allows me to buy common cards from the pre-WW2 era and little else. I have a W572 Ruth card, a nice Diamond Stars card of Earl Averill, a '33 G Earle Combs, and a couple other prewar HOF cards, but none would benefit from having them graded.

For the record, I still visit that dealer's store. He's one of the good guys and deserves the support of his customers, but we just didn't see eye to eye on the topic of graded cards. I should point out that he's gotten better...I was in his store a couple of months ago when somebody came in with some graded mid-1970s commons. The commons were all in the PSA 6-7 range, and he asked the guy what possessed him to pay 10 bucks a pop to have 50-cent cards graded.