Buying Slabbed Only to crack it open?

General
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Hi All, I am currently on the lookout to trying to buy a gold star celebi. Obviously buying raw saves money, but really I like having a binder for my collection. I am finding it pretty difficult to finding a decent condition one. My question is, does anyone buy slabs of cards only to break them open for your binder? Buying ones already graded would give me piece of mind but seems almost like taboo to open them up? And even if I did are they difficult to do? Are there places that will do it for me? Thank you.

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Yes, people do this. There are plenty of tutorials on how to do it if you look on youtube

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IMO it is an excellent excuse to try and get a lower graded card that is in a good condition (where PSA \ BGS graded it harshly). I did it with a CGC card but not sure gold stars are frequently graded with CGC. From what it seems on YouTube videos it doesn’t seem too hard cracking a PSA either. Wear some glasses \ goggles as little pieces can fly out when you crack it :grin:

Just make sure you send PSA the label and tell them you cracked it.

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I’ve cracked 150+ slabs for my sets. Only a year ago, it was often cheaper to crack a PSA 8 (or even a 9, sometimes) than buying a raw copy.

As far as opening slabs is concerned, it’s super easy. I’ve never damaged a card. Look up how to do it on YouTube.

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@chrisundrum,@pkmnflyingmaster,@wo1v3r,@zorloth,Thanks yall! appreciate the feedback.

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Why seek youtube when all your own answers can be found here on E4? E4 knows all…

www.elitefourum.com/t/how-i-crack-a-psa-case/28618/1

This is from our own jonandek. Extremely useful.

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A great guide, though I think Jon slightly overcomplicates it. Personally, I’ve had no issues with only cutting off the top corners of the case. I think cutting off the bottom corners adds an unnecessary layer of risk and only makes it marginally easier to pry the case open.

But his idea of doing it in a ziplock bag is really good. And his method for cleaning cards is perfect, and is basically identical to how I personally clean mine. So the video is very helpful in general! I would just recommend not bothering with cutting the bottom edges of the slab.

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@zorloth, @brendantheclayboy,
This is why I love this forum. Thanks for the link. Not going to lie though, the screwdriver portion had me gripping my seat. I think I will have to practice with some smaller stuff before doing a big purchase card. phewwww.

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