Poll of the Day

Indeed. And the graded I did have were incidental to the purchase, not the focus. Heck, last night I finally got around to freeing my last graded card I had. Completely forgot about it until I got around to doing this collection reconciliation. May the 90 Score Traded Emmitt Smith, formally a GMA 9, forever live peacefully with the rest of the set inside its original factory box.

GoldenEagles555 wrote:

Any graded cards I happen to get (which are not a lot) are freed from their prison as soon as I get them home.

I have purchased graded vintage cards because it seems more of them are graded. But I have removed all of them and put them into binders except for 1935 National Chicle and 3D Kellogg's cards. I had some Kellogg's cards growing up in the 1970's and they warped and cracked. I have also removed Uncirculated cards because I enjoy having my collection in binders. I won't buy newer graded cards. 

Depends on the card...mostly Raw but an iconic card like an Ozzie Smith or Dan Marino Topps Rookie, I want it graded 

I would say if it is specific cards I would prefer graded in general but if set collecting I would prefer ungraded.

Raw for sure. I have VERY few graded cards in our shop. I dont trust grading at all. I sent a card in that was in perfect shape and it came back a 5!! I cracked and sent it back in to the same company and in came back a 9! Grading is a joke.

I would never send a card off where it could get lost somewhere, so some stranger could possibly damage it, just to have them assign some totally subjective number value to it. I'd much rather spend that money on more cards. Now I also don't dabble in super valuable or vintage cards where I understand that grading can be used to verify the card is not counterfeit or altered.

Haha, same. I have purchased one graded card...and I cracked the slab within 5 minutes of opening the envelope it arrived in.

Authentication services make sense to me, but grading feels like predatory, pay-to-play nonsense. I suspect the original intent was honorable, but the practice has been perverted by the market.

I don’t have any interest in card grading.  I’ve purchased a graded card only once and I removed it from the slab once I received it.  I get that it helps if you want to sell cards and make money, but I don’t plan on selling my cards.  In the unlikely circumstance that I somehow get lucky and obtain one of those six figure or more in value type cards, then I’d look to sell it. But even then I’d probably look into an auction or something instead of sending it to be graded first.

For anything newer, raw is good.  But I like knowing that something older and easier to fake has been through an authentication service prior to dropping $ on them.  

If you happen to come across a PSA 10 1952 Mantle ummm 🧐 never open that one