Over the last few years, I’ve been slowly cracking most of my slabs and moving the cards into binders. For a long time, I focused too much on the grade instead of simply enjoying the card itself.
Last year especially, Gengar cards appreciated far more than I expected, which left me regretting some purchases I never made. At this point, it almost doesnt matter which Gengar card it is— most of them have increased in value in one way or another.
Watching PSA 9 prices climb on cards like Gengar LV.X, Gengar Prime, and Gengar VS made me realize I don’t really need them sealed in plastic anymore. Lately, I’ve been selling my PSA 9’s and replacing them with PSA 6’s and 7’s for my binder collection.
For me, if the front presents well and the back is reasonably clean, that’s good enough. I’d rather own and enjoy the card than chase a higher grade.
Has anyone else gone through a similar shift in mindset? If you keep binder copies of expensive cards, what condition or grade do you typically look for?
Atleast clean looking PSA 6s, getting a mint card with an invisible dent. Otherwise PSA 7+ quality.
For binders my only requirement is it must look good in the binder, so not too concerned about whitening or small edge wear. Creases is the killer though
While the majority of collection are still PSA 10s, I have a subset of my collection that I keep as a binder collection. A lot of them were downgraded to LP from higher grades and I appreciate them just as much. There’s also the underrated benefit of saving storage space when swapping from slabs to binders.
Most cards are probably PSA 6-8, with more expensive down to maybe PSA 5. I don’t mind if a war was fought on the back of the card, as I am not looking at it, but I do try to avoid creases.
I have never been a huge fan of the graded card world, most of the time it’s just a way to overprice some random cards and stupidly raise their prices.
I personally like the look of slabs, but I prefer going for low grade slabs, like PSA 4/5/6s. I feel like their price is much more affordable and human, and also most of them don’t look bad at all, at first glance i wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between a 9 and a 6.
If you are an investor, then getting high grade slabs makes sense, otherwise I just care of having a graded copy for having the satisfaction of display and collection.
For binder copies i sometimes get also heavily played cards, some of them just have either bad borders or some damage on the back, but the front looks super clean
The vast majority of my binder is lightly played, with some French cards are extremely played. On the other end I cracked a gem mint Spanish 1st edition neo genesis marill for the binder.
For me binders are about seeing everything in one place, chasing that next completed page, condition doesn’t enter it at all.
I do have a small graded collection, but I view it very separate and itches a separate part of my collectors brain. It’s not as fun as a binder collection!
I collect both, but most of my graded cards are submitted by myself… it’s not often I actually buy a high grade card as it rarely seems worth it compared to the equivalent in raw cards
Anything under a 10 is great to crack for binders.
Mint Binder Collection: 8s, 9s
Near Mint Binder Collection: 6s, 7s, 8s
Played Binder Collection: 5s, 6s, 7s
Sometimes I want a mint binder and other times I want a played binder. It’s nice to have the freedom to choose how I want to collect, rather than having a blanket numerical requirement.
While I still try to find the cleanest copy available, my bare minimum requirement is an untarnished front surface, particularly no creases. I occasionally like to take the cards out of the binder and appreciate them up close. Still tough to do if the rest of the card is in bad shape - feels and looks icky without the sleeve. To be perfectly honest, the ideal condition I would like in my binder collection is a strong PSA 9 without surface scratches. Any other defects found on a Mint 9 card is acceptable for me, but finding these cards in the wild have become incredibly scarce given that everyone is grading whatever seems promising to them.
I view my binder collection as a form of pure consumption so I make purchases to complete the missing parts of the binder a lot more sparingly. This mindset of zero resale value also allows me to truly enjoy the cards for what they are and not subconsciously attach a $ value that distracts me from my appreciation of the cards. Any remaining graded cards in my collection have a specific story tied to that card/slab or a purpose beyond the number denoted on the slab.
Welcome back to the bindergang! We missed you.
cpbog1
