General Forum

I'd really like to know, what do you do if you have a high graded card and then the holder gets scratched or cracked?  It's now like that forever and you have to crack the case and get it regraded or look at the ugly, scratched holder.  Grading SUCKS!

I too am of the "Not a fan of it" school of collecting. As many many people have mentioned here (on just the first 2 pages I didn't read page 3) getting Old Vintage (50s possibly 60s) and Pre-War cards graded are pretty much the only cards that would be "worth" getting graded. That is mostly for their continued preserving to keep their exceptional value. The prices of getting a card graded are way to much for me and that is going by the prices from 20 years ago. I don't know what the current prices are. Getting a brand new fresh from the pack or factory box card graded it way too silly for me to even consider.

Sorry the rest of this post goes slightly off topic.

Someone (I forget who) mentioned that grading is ruining set collecting. While it is one of the gang members killing set collecting I don't think it is the ring leader, that in my opinion would be the plethera of stupidly super short printed cards, the multiple insert sets (OK some might consider inserts to be an "extra" and not a true part of the set) and the terrible seeding of base cards in the packs that practically force set collecots to break down and bite the bullet on purchasing the factory set, instead of buy packs or trading or traditionally "building" the set. The multitude of parallel sets is also contributing to the death of set collecting.

When a set is only 100-200 base cards and a typical box has 36 packs of 8 cards per pack (often time less like 4 or 5 cards per pack) and buying 2 boxes does NOT guarantee completing the set that is a big problem. Too many inserts and too many parallels.

A good friend of mine in the hobby, began in the hobby as a kid in the late 90's , with a great eye to spot the rare card accidentally put into in the 10 cent and 25 cent box at the LCS.  He'd spend hours in that box, pulling 4  cards for $1, that he didn't need, he simply knew their value, and then flipping them for 4x $10 cards he needded for his collection.  I never had the patience for it.

As time went on, he began spending his time at shows doing this, and selling his finds on ebay.  Using the ebay profit, to buy a card on ebay for his collection.  As time went on, he graduated to searching the $1 box at shows.  He became obsessed with his ebay feedback score.  He spent a lot of time on his listings, trying to give the best description of condition.

He claimed that about 1 in 10 buyers had buyers regret of some kind and asked to return a card. He was afraid to say no, because of that obsession with feedback, and also, ebay and paypal are 100% in favor of buyers on all complaints.  Trying to dispute a buyer claim, and request for refund, is almost impossible. This part of the hobby gave him ulcers.

About 2 years ago, my friend who never sent cards for grading, now no longer a kid, flipped his model of the hobby to grading everything he wanted to sell on ebay.  The bottom line, he's selling a PSA 9 of card XYZ, or selling a BGS 8 of card ABC, and there is no longer the need to describe the card condition on ebay.  No longer any dispute with buyers.  No longer the potential for buyer to complaint to ebay - card not as described.

It reminds me of the begining days of ebay, when cards were sent through USPS regular mail, and 1 in 10 would complain that they never recieved their purchase and demand a refund. [half lieing, and the other half  impatient when it didn't arrive within a week of purchase] The hobby quickly adapted to adding tracking on postage, and signature verification for a high end item, and pass throught of the cost to the buyer.

Anyhow, I don't collect graded, just sharing a story of why it works for one guy in the hobby.

I have heard you can send it back to the grading company to have them reslab it. I think they charge $10 for that. Also I heard if you are not clear about your intentions (or follow the proper "proceedure" for a replace case request) they will regrade and charge the full price for the grading process. Or if they thing the case was tampered with in a way that would effect the card's condition.

Check the grading company's website or try to find out how to contact them about getting the case replaced.

Great story, abide. I half expected it to end with "I lied... the guy getting ulcers is me.".

I believe that grading is a bit of a scam, but the good thing about having a grade on a card is that it at least establishes a pricing baseline for that particular card. This can be useful for insurance purposes or even just regular selling/trading of a card.

i do too because it is very inconsistent. I'm more angry at the population reports which prove NOTHING. GRADING IS A SCAM

I hate it when a card I've been looking for for a long time pops up and the dang thing is slabbed and graded. I generally, as a rule, don't buy graded cards.