Entombed in Plastic

[ScottFandango]

im not a flipper, only sold a few modern cards over the years...

also, you dont seem to realize how the hobby has changed over the last 30 years....as cards have become worth more and more, there has been an influx of more dirt bags trying to scam people....the TPGs protect people from dirtbags....

if the cards didnt escalate in value over the years, then we woulnt need TPG...but, since we know that big bucks are spent on cards, its important to have a third party leveling the playing field....

when i see a nice card not slabbed, i am not willing to pay up for that card because of the risk of it being trimmed, altered. etc...

so i simply wanted to make the point that if you deslab your cards, your are hurting their value because most buyers like myself will be hesistant to buy raw...JUST LIKE YOU BOUGHT THE CARD GRADED FOR PIECE OF MIND....you may KNOW its authentic and not trimmed after you deslab it, but what about the next owner or the potential buyer? they will not be so sure of its authenticty as the person who deslabbed it!

most importantly, in-person transactions are rare these days, so we have to rely on scans online or from an auction book, so the old timers cant touch and feel to check for authenticity...another reason to keep things slabbed.

how many raw cards does REA have up for auction? nuf said

[Leon]

Originally Posted by ScottFandango

how many raw cards does REA have up for auction? nuf said

well over a thousand.....

[ScottFandango]

i dont have mine in front of me...

how many raw cards does REA have in the first 100 pages??

zero?

[Leon]

Originally Posted by ScottFandango

i dont have mine in front of me...

how many raw cards does REA have in the first 100 pages??

zero?

That wasn't the question.

[Tomman1961]

My T206 Cobb (red) is driving me crazy. My all-time favorite card. But he is slabbed in plastic. I have the card-----that's great. But I have never touched it. Something wrong about that. I bet some day I crack it and get the full satisfaction of owning it and actually touching it.

[chaddurbin]

Originally Posted by Tomman1961

My T206 Cobb (red) is driving me crazy. My all-time favorite card. But he is slabbed in plastic. I have the card-----that's great. But I have never touched it. Something wrong about that. I bet some day I crack it and get the full satisfaction of owning it and actually touching it.

if you haven't already done so...i bet you won't.

[glchen]

Originally Posted by ScottFandango

im not a flipper, only sold a few modern cards over the years...

also, you dont seem to realize how the hobby has changed over the last 30 years....as cards have become worth more and more, there has been an influx of more dirt bags trying to scam people....the TPGs protect people from dirtbags....

if the cards didnt escalate in value over the years, then we woulnt need TPG...but, since we know that big bucks are spent on cards, its important to have a third party leveling the playing field....

when i see a nice card not slabbed, i am not willing to pay up for that card because of the risk of it being trimmed, altered. etc...

so i simply wanted to make the point that if you deslab your cards, your are hurting their value because most buyers like myself will be hesistant to buy raw...JUST LIKE YOU BOUGHT THE CARD GRADED FOR PIECE OF MIND....you may KNOW its authentic and not trimmed after you deslab it, but what about the next owner or the potential buyer? they will not be so sure of its authenticty as the person who deslabbed it!

most importantly, in-person transactions are rare these days, so we have to rely on scans online or from an auction book, so the old timers cant touch and feel to check for authenticity...another reason to keep things slabbed.

how many raw cards does REA have up for auction? nuf said

Scott,

I didn't mean to imply that you were a flipper. And as I have said before, I believe in slabbing, and practically all of my prewar cards have been slabbed by PSA, SGC, or BVG. I was just trying to explain that there was another side to the argument, which I understand. It's just another one of those things where reasonable people will just have agree that there are reasonable differing opinions out there.

[Leon]

I should add that even though I think there are a ton of raw cards in the hobby, and even some valuable raw ones, I do agree with what Scott F. is saying. It is also the reason I have almost 100% of my higher valued cards in holders. Just my opinion but I think de-slabbing an expensive card is not wise. (for the reasons Scott and others have stated). Even though I am argumentative and play devil's advocate I try to be fair in my arguing.

[Matthew H]

Originally Posted by ScottFandango

if the cards didnt escalate in value over the years, then we woulnt need TPG...but, since we know that big bucks are spent on cards, its important to have a third party leveling the playing field....

Most of the price escalation has been in the mint category. My Dad bought me a 1968 Topps Mantle for my 8th birthday, That was 1988. It was in fair condition, he paid 60 dollars... Guess what that card is worth today? Of course the price has "escalated" because slabbed mint examples have sold for thousands of dollars right?

Its a really good thing TPGs are around to keep the value of mint cards high. Just don't crack the plastic or you'll lose the value... CRAZY AS F***!

[ScottFandango]

Originally Posted by Matthew H

Most of the price escalation has been in the mint category. My Dad bought me a 1968 Topps Mantle for my 8th birthday, That was 1988. It was in fair condition, he paid 60 dollars... Guess what that card is worth today? Of course the price has "escalated" because slabbed mint examples have sold for thousands of dollars right?

Its a really good thing TPGs are around to keep the value of mint cards high. Just don't crack the plastic or you'll lose the value... CRAZY AS F***!

totally disagree...

there are hardly any prewar mint cards to begin with so this argument holds no water...

the rarity of a card mainly determines its valuation...actually the more times a specific card is found in mint, the less it is worth...

[Matthew H]

Originally Posted by ScottFandango

totally disagree...

there are hardly any prewar mint cards to begin with so this argument holds no water...

the rarity of a card mainly determines its valuation...actually the more times a specific card is found in mint, the less it is worth...

If the rarity of a card determines its valuation then no value should be lost by cracking a slab.

Rarity value is simply supply and demand, but thats not what you are referring to in any of your posts.

successfully cracking and re-subbing a card for a higher grade actually makes the same card worth more money. That is so crazy to me. TPGs have added phantom value to cards, coins and currency. Just a fact

[steve B]

I wouldn't call more value for nicer examples a phantom value. It's been that way in nearly every collecting hobby for a very long time.

Being able to quantify it and make money from that is somwhat new, but hardly something that began with TPG in any field.

And cards are primarily a demand market. Otherwise the Wagner wouldn't even be close to the most valuable card. I'm not even sure it would make the top 500.

What grading has done is to bring in a group of people who have a good deal of money, but not necessarily the time to learn all the nuances of a wide range of cards. With TPG they can feel comfortable buying certain cards without the suspicion of alterations and fakes. And that has raised values on the popular sets well beyond what they would be otherwise.
Many of the less popular/less well known sets especially postwar are actually the same or lower than they were several years ago.

Not saying that's good or bad just that it is.
Not saying those same people don't understand the history or the baseball.



And the anti-slab crowd will perhaps be happy to note that slabs while still available for stamps have largely failed to succeed. Certificates which have been around for long time (Maybe a century or more? they were preceeded by expertising marks) can now have a grade included, and that's becoming more popular.

Steve B

Steve B

Originally Posted by Matthew H

If the rarity of a card determines its valuation then no value should be lost by cracking a slab.

Rarity value is simply supply and demand, but thats not what you are referring to in any of your posts.

successfully cracking and re-subbing a card for a higher grade actually makes the same card worth more money. That is so crazy to me. TPGs have added phantom value to cards, coins and currency. Just a fact