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Posted By: Al C.risafulli

Frank:

Not that this is the thread for this, but I'd like to explain to you why I prefer to have some of my cards graded.

I have been collecting cards on and off for almost 30 years. I'm happy to say I do not wish I'd collected longer, because I'm happy to be 37 years old and don't want to wish any more years onto my age.

When I re-entered the hobby a few years ago, I was thrilled to discover the wide range of cards available on the internet, through various sources. I was simultaneously dismayed to re-discover the huge range in grades assigned to cards by sellers of raw cards. Cards described as NMT would arrive at my doorstep in EX condition. Cards described as EX would arrive in VG condition. And, once in a while, a card would be accurately described. Unfortunately, you can't always tell from a scan, and equally unfortunately, you can't always count on a seller to accept a return.

What I discovered was that if I purchased a particular card in, say, SGC 60, I could feel confident that I was going to get a card that was graded independently by someone other than the seller, that was reasonably close to EX condition. I also discovered that the third-party evaluation helped me if I was a seller, because buyers could trust my description of the card more. Sure, when I sell a graded card, I try and descibe it anyway (despite what it says on the flip), but the number sure makes people more confident.

The other thing I discovered was that I don't like the way cards look in plastic sheets in binders. I also don't like the way they look in card savers in a cardboard box. I LIKE the way they look in slabs, either in a box or elsewhere in my card room. I generally don't like to tuck my cards away in binders - I like to live in the middle of them, store them all around me, on display, like pictures. Whatever I am doing in my card room, I am always looking at cards. It's kinda cool. I'm talking on the phone, looking at Monty Ward or Charlie Comiskey or Mickey Mantle or Johnny Bench and I feel like I'm surrounded by history.

It's also sorta neat that I can put them in a set registry, so that if other people ask me what I have in my collection, I can point them somewhere on the internet where they can see for themselves.

And if I happen to be looking at a card and my clumsy hands drop it, or I drip some ice cream on it, or I have some dirt on my fingers, I don't have to freak out that I just damaged something that cost me a few hundred dollars. It's fairly well protected. It couldn't survive a house fire or a nuclear war or anything, but in the event of either one of those occurrences, I wouldn't be worried about my baseball cards anyway.

That's why I like graded cards. It has nothing whatsoever to do with slab collecting. And there's a lot of other people with equally valid reasons.

Sorry to get so off track, but I've been waiting for an opportunity to explain this, and this seemed like as good a time as any.

-Al