Buying Raw cards from Oldtime Dealers

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Posted By: Red

Collectors who don't know what they're looking at, or how to grade, can get suckered into paying too much for a card with great eye appeal. The card could have serious technical defects that would cause the "professional" grade of the card to be way below what you thought you were buying. That's why it's scary to hear anti-graders suggest that slabbing would be okay if all the graders would do is slab a card as authentic. The buyer and seller are then left up to their own ability to judge the card's grade and value , which takes you back to the dark ages of dealing where sellers see no defects and look for inexperienced buyers. A lot of oldtime buyers and sellers will grade based on eye appeal. Some buyers are okay with that, but others will shoot their cards off to the strictest grading companies without even looking at them and then get upset when the grades don't match.