Grading hits home

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Posted By: Lee Behrens

How does a card with a hole even get a grade of 2? If the rest of the card is MInt I still don't think it can receive a grade a Good. The grade itself is a joke.

It was brought up that in the past you could go to a card shop and talk to the dealer and get information and they were quite friendly. Well as a person that ran a card store from 1988-1992 (the end of the hay days in the hobby). It is fine to talk to your customers but if no one is buying it tends to turn the dealer sour and eventually out of business. We had a great run for 4 years, but got out at a good time, too many talkers and not enough buyers. I loved the job (hated the new cards) and the people but if you are not making any money you can't stay in business.

The internet is made out to be this great evil in the hobby but what it has done is create an arena to be able to actually collect vintage cards at a price that is more reflective of the market and not what the price guide or some dealer this the price should be. I would have NEVER been able to get close to completeing a T202 and T206 without the internet, very few vintage cards were around the shows in Minnesota. I think that selling graded cards on the internet prior to scanners was the way you almost had to use to sell your cards but now that scanners and cameras are so good that the need is no longer there to get a card slabbed just to sell your cards.

Lee