Hello I know a lot of you guys are big binder collectors. I was wondering when it comes to cracking slabs for your binders what grades do you crack? I remember there was some madman on e4 a year or so ago cracking 10s but I wanted to know what the avg binder collector considers for their binders?
(I know it varies on the card type, a 1st ed base holo may have more wear allowance than a neo holo to most people, but the name of the game is average cracking)
Thanks
I will most commonly seek out X Grade to crack for my binder…
I wish there were a way to vote for multiple of these…just because as someone who cracks, sometimes the price difference between a 7, 8 or 9 forces me to go lower or higher than I want.
How nice the card looks regardless of the stated grade
How expensive the card is
How much the card would be raw vs graded
Whether it’s modern or vintage
For most vintage cards, I crack PSA 6-9 or CGC 8.5-9. For most modern cards, I crack PSA 8-10 and CGC 8-10. If there is a huge 10 premium, I won’t crack 10s.
Went through my beloved label collection and roughly estimated an average of 8. But I agree with @Dyl , any grade/grading company is fair game as long as the card’s appeal brings you satisfaction. I find myself mostly avoiding holo scratches. But yeah no slab is safe…
TCGplayer LP or NM for me. Especially for modern it will most likely have an issue with centering or the back which in a binder are kinda irrelevant so that is good enough for me. Skips a step in terms of cracking slabs. But if I had to crack slabs i would probably crack PSA 8s
I’m definitely not going for great condition in binders. It’s just not that important to me in that medium. Don’t think I have ever cracked a 7 or higher. If I really needed a binder card and had a higher grade of it, then I’d just sell the higher grade and buy a lower grade or raw card.
I’ll generally buy cards raw if I can, although with vintage holos it’s generally ‘safer’ to buy graded as many people do not grade surface condition well on old holos in my experience. I tend to go for PSA 5-8 grades to crack out. Some 5s or 6s can look really good and just have a minor surface dent or heavy whitening that will often still be fine in a binder set. You can definitely save a ton buying these and building up sets. I’ve bought my vintage cards all over the place; eBay, PWCC, TCGplayer, LGSs, Heritage, random online shops, etc.
With modern cards, I will buy raw NM pretty much exclusively unless I can get like a PSA 9 or something for the same or less money than NM to crack out. Otherwise if it’s a card I really like I will buy it in a 10 and store away if I want it in a 10 instead of my binder.
8 is my baseline. If I can find an 8, I buy an 8. Before I buy one I look at the front and back to check centering and make sure there’s no conspicuous edgewear that will bother me.
For lower-value cards where the markup on a 9 is still a reasonable cost, I will buy 9s. Usually if it’s $150 or less I will consider a 9. It’s not a guarantee I will go for the higher grade but I’ll at least consider it.
I will also buy 7s if the 7 I see is well-centered and has no edgewear. Many of my best deals have been 7s. But most 7s do not fit my criteria.
My binders need to stay in the PSA 7-5 range so I never get tempted to risk grading.
I have only ever cracked one card for my binder simply because it was cheaper to buy a CGC 8.5 than to purchase the card raw.
I am not in a rush to complete a binder, so I don’t stress about finding the right card in the right condition. There will always be a better card in raw condition and I save the grading fee + risk of damaging the card.
I buy raw cards. I do not buy graded unless absolutely necessary, meaning that I am having trouble finding the card raw. I only have cracked a single PSA9 card before and I have one PSA8 which I still have to crack. I always felt that buying a graded card is not worth the premium if I am going to crack it anyways.
I also just buy the raw cards from Mercari JP or YJP. I feel it is easier to group or bundle more cards and negotiate better prices when it is a raw card as compared to slabs.
I put PSA 8, but generally go between 7-9 depending on the actual card condition, price point and priority in my collection. For example, expensive cards that I want but are not obsessed with I’ll grab a 7, whereas if the condition and price are really good I’ll get a 9.
I recently bought all the Japanese base set holos to crack, and was able to get mostly PSA 9’s between $50-100 each.
I would vote multiple options, from 5-8. Ive seen some 5 that under no circumstance should get a 5 (at least a 7) and ive seen 8 that under no circumstance should be getting an 8 (at most a 6).
My binder collection is mostly L/P cards, as long as the front isn’t awful.
If I get a PSA 8 back from grading on a low-end card it’ll go in the binder.
I buy raw cards but will break a case or two on occassion if its in a condition I like and selling less for raw. Just broke a CGC 8 for a Paldea Evolved Magikarp for the same reason.
Otherwise I just buy most of my stuff as singles or the occassional trade.
I’ve only cracked one PSA-graded card thus far, back in 2018 or so. At the time I already had a PSA-10 copy and couldn’t find any raw ones for sale, so I bought this PSA-9 and cracked it.
I find PSA 7 to be the optimal price/condition trade-off, sometimes PSA 6 but that’s a bit more of a coin toss.
The ideal binder cards are 6s with near-invisible dents.
