Grading hits home

[Archive]

Posted By: Mark Holt

Just about everything that can be said has been said on this string but what the heck, I'll throw my 2 cents in. I've collected since 1959. I have a good mix of T206 to 1994 baseball and plenty of other sports cards. Most of my stuff is 'raw' and when grading started I thought it was ridiculous. Now I'm in the process of getting my T206s, Diamond Stars, C55 Hockey, and other old sets graded.

Why?
1. Because there are no card stores near me. Buying on eBay is the only way I'll expand my collection at what I believe are reasonable prices. No offense to dealers reading this but thanks to eBay I don't have to pay your overhead any more. There are a batch of eBay resellers I trust and I buy raw cards from them. But I'll buy graded cards from anyone with decent feedback. There are millions of graded cards from the top three services and while the grade itself is subjective I'd bet that less than 1% are fakes or altered. I bet the % of raw cards with problems on eBay is 30% or more.
2. My son has no interest in cards. When I croak my wife will sell the stuff off and she'll get some decent money with the older stuff graded.
3. I like the PSA Set Registry, call me nuts if you want but its interesting to see where your sets are ranked.
4. The look of the slabbed cards grows on you (although it did take me about 6 years).
5. Slabbed cards are not going to get further damage (I know some move around in some inserts but how many corners have you dinged just looking at them or putting them in albums?).

In summary, my collection will always have both graded and raw cards. I can't see going to the expense of grading all my Topps sets so I'm getting them in Roop albums. But the older stuff can be stored in a few boxes and a few of them displayed nicely. Grading is here to stay and as Rodney King said 'Can't we all get along?'