PSA 5 Evers....I don't think so....DO YOU ?

[Archive]

Posted By: Joann

Maybe I misread this. Ted, I don't mean to speak for you and please ring in if I misstate anything here.

I don't think Ted bought the card for the grade. He bought it because he needed the card, and then found that becuase it was misgraded he paid more than he should have.

I also didn't take his posts to mean that the grade set his price, in that he couldn't set his price on his own - the "nobody should set your price but you - nobody sets my price but me" argument.

I took it that he wanted this card and needed this card. He would have bought it raw, would have preferred to buy it raw, and in that case would have paid a fair price based on condition.

But because it was graded he only had two choices: either pay the price that is set by people that DO buy the slab, not the card - ie, the price that other buyers will pay for the PSA 5 slab - or else not get the card at all.

Not good choices, and I understand the frustration there. Sure he can say no one but me determines my price. But the fact of the matter is that there are buyers who will pay $XXX for a PSA 5 HOF'er. Those buyers set the price for that card, whether Ted likes it or not. If he doesn't like it then he can't get a card he needs.

I feel the same way sometimes. I couldn't care less about slabs one way or another. But as more and more cards get slabbed and that increasingly becomes the only option, I am increasingly forced to pay a price that is set by people that buy the grade, not the card.

So as much as we like to say buy the card, not the slab, as long as there are many others that WILL buy the slab we will no longer have those two choices.

Our new choice may become: Buy the slab or don't buy anything.

So if there's a card you really want or need, and most or all are slabbed, you have to suck it up and pay the slab price. Ouch once. Then to find out the slab was wrong - double ouch.

I agree with Ted. I don't really object to grading, but as more and more cards become unavailable raw, I do kind of resent having to pay prices that are set by people that want to pay for a grade and not the card - despite all of our protestations to the contrary.

Joann