Do High Grades Really Matter?

[HRBAKER]

I think that there are really a couple of questions there. Sure I would much rather have a nice, clean mid-grade copy of a card I want as opposed to a beater when that is possible and will ususally wait for or eventually trade up to get it. What I can't comprehend is the thousands of dollars in difference that people pay on the high end between grades when you basically need lab equipment to spot the differences.

Sometimes the prey is so seldom seen that you take what you can get.

[bbcard1]

My new mantra which I adopted around the middle of last year is never buy a card twice. I recently bought a 1.5 Waddell which I will be happy with for a long time. I bought a Cobb bat off last year that I shouldn't have. It only cost about $300 (less because it was in trade) but I will upgrading it soon. A $500 will probably do, but I really wasted time and effort on the card. And yeah, i'll probably get someone else who will take if for $300...but it taught me my lesson.

[atx840]

For me I prefer the 3-5.5 range cards, never owned anything higher and don't plan on it. Beater commons are not my thing, if its a rareback or a neat print anomaly then I'll take anything within reason, the cheaper the better.

This to me is, well just silly....no offences to whomever purchased as its a blazer.

PSA 9

[steve B]

I have a pretty wide range of grades. Most of my cards are raw, but I've had a few graded. It's cool to have a card that's the best or nearly the best(So far) of its kind, but I also like cards that wear their history openly. And the ones with the most "charachter" don't need to be slabbed (Another issue, unless it's really uncommon, I can't see grading anything that is obviously less than vg-ex)

And budget has a lot to do with it. There are cards that I'll probably never own because of what they are, and ones I'll probably never own because of the money involved - That PSA9 linked to is wonderful, but realistically I can get a very nice looking example for far less.

I don't mind buying a card twice, mostly since I buy the cards and keep them for usually a long time. So I do a bit better than if I upgraded right away.

Lately I've been looking at cards that are good looking for the grade, or look great but have obvious problems like back damage.

Steve B

[Ladder7]

Welcome to the board Copper.

What would you rather have?.. A 1/1 or rare beater or a regularly encountered mid-grade example?