I guess you’ve never graded at psa and don’t know that nothing is certain. Why would a buyer pay $1500 for a gem mint looking card and just spend it on an actual graded psa 10
Yea that’s crazy but the bigger question is why would someone pay $75-$90 more for a raw card projected to be a PSA 7 than a PSA 7 itself? Same with NM/M and on up.
Are you saying you’re willing to pay those premiums for reputable sellers and their opinions on the condition of raw zards?
A question I have for the seller is, why would you ever leave money on the table by not grading if it’s truly in gem mint condition? Let the buyer be the one to crack it out of the slab if they only collect raw. At least prior to selling it you’d know exactly what you’ve got and are working with. Especially if we’re talking a 4 figure or higher card? So you think your base set Charizard is gem mint? Then spend the $10 to get it graded and cash out for top dollar.
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So here’s the question. Based on an accurate pre-grade, how do you retail price a raw single if you’re the seller?
My question was as much about NM cards as gem mint.
Let’s say a Nm/M card if graded an 8 runs 15.00. What price would you as a seller price that card at Ungraded?
I hear you, I still say the top price at best is 75% of its graded equivalent. And as much as it’s about NM as gem mint, I’m yet to find anyone who actually knows what they have selling gem mints ungraded.
So, I’m far from an expert here but I can offer my thoughts on your question from both buyer and seller perspective as they are of course linked.
First as a buyer, for cards labeled as gem mint and might grade a 10 (regarding WOTC not modern), I would like only be willing to pay 25-35% over the PSA 9 price and that is only with someone I strongly trust (like Gary). If the seller is unknown, I would never pay over PSA 9 price for a RAW card. The buyer assumes all the risk and time after the sale and for me personally, with how PSA grades, it’s not worth risking more than 25-35% in hopes of a 10, especially when the price difference is so drastic like 300 for PSA9 and 1500 for PSA 10. I wouldn’t be willing to risk 1000 bucks on a “gem mint” labeled card cause there is a lot of potential risk to easily lose 700. For the slightly lower tier cards, NM/M I would be looking to purchase the card for whatever the PSA price is minus grading fees and then maybe minus 10% or so because of the risk. So a card thought to be PSA 8 worth $15, I wouldn’t want to pay more than say $6 for it because of grading costs, etc. Although I could easily seeing someone who is much more into binder collecting would be willing to pay $10-12 dollars as the price from 7-8 probably isn’t much.
From a seller perspective, I think you need to answer an important question first before pricing and selling these and that is “are you in a rush to sell these cards somewhat quickly?” If the answer is yes, then I would price on this lower end that is more appealing to buyers, like for a gem mint card, 25% over the PSA9 price. If I had time to sit and wait for the sale and it didn’t really matter if I sold it next week or next year, then I would likely list it at a higher price (maybe 50-60% over PSA 9) and just sit on it. Odds are decent a fish will swim by and take a nibble eventually.
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@firebirder31,
Very well put bird. Just the kind of insight I’m looking for:)
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The only problem is I can buy every “nm” ungraded unlimited zard i find online for 75 to 100 and if it’s not perfect easily resell it within hours on mercari to get my money right back at least in my experience… and I dont grade cards regularly by any means so to pay anywhere close to post graded cost and then either deal with the hassle of grading or the cost and still hassle of paying someone else to it just seems crazy to me… I personally enjoy the grind but I feel like the average collector will just buy the thing graded and move on with their lives
Dont most psa 8 cards sell for about raw price anyways just bought an unlimited zard psa 8 for 110
I overprice everything and it always seems to sell given enough time.
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I am someone who collects ungraded cards for my binder sets and I would not pay PSA 10 price for a gem mint card. I doubt I would put a premium over PSA 9 price. If someone is specifically buying cards for their *ungraded* collection, why would they pay a premium for PSA 10 quality when it’s far easier to buy and crack a PSA 10? Most people I know who collect ungraded cards want them for their binder and are not willing to pay PSA 10 prices.
However, with PSA 8 and 9 quality, I think you have a better shot at getting PSA value from binder collectors. I would pay close to PSA 9 value for an ungraded card I believed would receive a PSA 9 if I sent it to PSA. So like others have suggested, I would not list anything gem mint you thought would get a 10… if they aren’t worth the price or hassle of getting graded, wait a few years and hopefully they will be 
There’s also people who love buying mint low POP cards with the hopes of getting a 10. Low POP mint cards may be morth worthwhile to list.
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Not more then $10. Grading costs 5-7$ and those are costs I just subtract from any listing, since every seller wants the grading fees back and adds these into the listing price. I would almost even say, depending if high or low 8, I might not even wanna bid more/pay more than $9.
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Good point. I doubt there would be a lot of buyers who are binder collectors wanting gem mint 10 WOTC cards for their binders when a 9 would do the trick at a fraction of the price. I would think a top factor for people doing a binder set vs. a PSA set would be for the cheaper price. Why pay a PSA 9+ price and not have the case and added value that comes with it?
I would think the majority (90%+) of the buyers for a raw card listed as gem mint would be folks who are going to send it in to PSA and like to take chance and gamble, could be to flip or get a potentially good deal on PSA 10 for their personal collection. Either way, I think if you label and sell a card at higher price than PSA 9 because it is “gem mint” then odds are high its going to end up in a PSA case anyways.
The lower grade cards, again, subtract grading costs and maybe even 10% under that and I think it would be a good fair price.
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