With the market being so hot. I liquidated almost all of my slabbed cards to pay off my student loans and give me a bit of a savings. Definitely one of the hardest sales I’ve had to make.
That being said, now that I’m debt free and have a grown up job I would like to continue this hobby. I’m looking for pros and cons of going back to collecting PSA cards or starting up a nice binder where I can keep everything stored. As far as purchasing cards I typically look for 7-10 quality and that would stay the same regardless.
First off, that’s a HUGE life enriching decision you made and one that you will not regret so congratulations on that! Secondly, let the fun begin! Do what YOU want. Personally speaking, I enjoy actually holding the card in my hand over a slab, tenfold. Just recently, I put all my 1st ed base in a binder, followed by their shadowless and unlimited counterparts - that was incredibly satisfying.
So, do both, see what you like better, and go from there. Enjoy!
I’m a big fan of binder cards. I think you will enjoy your collection more that way in the long-term. You’ll be less inclined to sell them (it takes more work to do so) and it’s easier to peruse your collection. Plus you can actually handle the cards. If they are properly stored and handled, I don’t see much risk to card condition.
On the other hand, high grade slabs of “big cards” are almost always going to be the best investments. I wouldn’t necessarily say that for “random card x from random set x” though. There’s something about a gem mint card in a slab that’s inherently more compelling than the same card raw.
Personally, I’ve gone for a hybrid with my pokemon card collecting. Slabbed copies of big cards. Also slabbed copies of my favorite cards or ones that I come to appreciate over time. But binder copies of everything else. I have collected everything from 1st ed base to the end of the EX era. 3500+ slabbed cards would just be crazy.
Congrats on paying off your loans! I’m beginning to pay off mine and it’s going to be a long road. Now that you don’t have monthly student loan payments maybe you can start saving up to buy back some of the cards that you sold that had the most sentimental value to you and buying ungraded cards for your binders on the side since they’re cheaper. Do you know what you would start collecting if you were to go down the binder route?
I was actually hoping to hear from you. I remember when you were getting into it, the pile of cracked cases you had for your binder. I agree that I would enjoy seeing my cards in a binder more and I like the idea of everything fitting into a nice package. But also as you discussed if a situation arose where I needed to sell cards I would have to get them graded before selling or run a risk. In your experience with buying for your binder, did the purchase slab and crack method end up making more sense or just trying to find raw clean copy’s?
Best of luck with yours! I imagine I would probably want go back to what I was doing. I like 1st ed. I’d love to have my 1st ed base starters back so that may be the first goal. I’d also like to have the gen 3 gold star starters so there’s another. I guess id like to get into this without worrying about value so much, I think it quit being as fun when I did. Obviously I’m thankful they are valuable or I wouldn’t be in the situation I’m in but still.
Yeah 100% go with buying raws for the binder, cheaper than grabbing say a psa 7 just to crack to put in the binder. I have both graded slab and binder collections, and there’s just something that feels slightly unauthentic about going through plastic slabs as opposed to being able to hold the cards themselves. I imagine it’s like going to see a family member in prison - yeah you’re the same distance away but there’s no real contact because of that pane of glass in between you…from what I’ve seen on TV, anyway! Plus if you ever want to sell there’s nothing stopping you sending them all in for grading at a later date to maximise returns.
Congrats on your return! Have you considered a binder for PSA slabs? It’s the best of both worlds imo. There are plastic pages which can hold PSA slabs. You can then store the plastic pages in a ring binder.The only downside is that I haven’t seen any plastic pages that can hold more than 4 slabs, and it doesn’t look as refined as a good premium binder page. But you still get the feeling of turning pages and seeing multiple cards at once.
Jonandek has a video of his 1st ed base set holos in such a binder in his collection thread if you want to check it out.
I actually tried this back when I had slabs. It was a decent compromise, but was hard to turn,didn’t fit many cards per page, and the pages were kinda pricy if remember right. Still a decent option if I decide to keep any slabbed cards.
I don’t think buying raw or slabbed is perfect, honestly. But it probably depends on the condition you’re going for and how picky you are. I aim for strong PSA 9 quality cards in my binders. And I have my own definition of the types of flaws I will tolerate more than others. Despite aiming for the same ideal when making every purchase (raw or slabbed), that’s not what I always end up with. I have churned through a massive amount of extra cards, I would guess somewhere between 500-1000, in building my binder sets. These failed purchases are both costly and time consuming. I sell all of the extras of course, but it’s inherently very inefficient. In summary the first thing I would say is that if you are really picky, it’s probably going to be a slog either way. You just have to embrace the process and love the chase and the feelings of satisfaction along the way when you get what you’re looking for.
If you AREN’T super picky, and just want cards of (for example) PSA 7 quality or better, then buying slabbed is going to be more efficient from a time standpoint for sure. In my experience with PSA, mostly when I feel a card is mis-graded it’s off by one grade. Or it could just be a weak example instead of a strong example of that grade. Rarely are they more than one grade off, but it does happen. I think if you’re patient and careful you can mostly avoid that. I won’t buy cards sight unseen unless it’s from forum members or other sellers that I trust and I always ask for pictures of the back and any part of the card that looks funny. So if you value time over money, go the PSA route and crack. PSA 7s and 8s are probably the best value to crack. As I always say, doing what I do and cracking out mostly PSA 9s is not for the faint of heart.
Obviously raw can be cheaper, but the variability can be huge. A “NM” card on ebay can be pack fresh flawless or it can look like it’s been grated between two pieces of sandpaper. The best experience I’ve had with raw cards has been buying in bulk. Sometimes you’ll find a set for sale where the whole thing is pack fresh or PSA 9/10 equivalent. I always try to pull on those threads. Maybe the seller has more cards or other listings. There’s nothing more satisfying (to me) than those finds and opening a package in the mail to find those raw, minty hidden gems. So, raw may be cheaper but will take more time.
I would suggest a hybrid of raw and slabbed, since everyone cares to some extent about both time and money. Maybe use raw purchases to build the base of your sets back up, then buy some slabs of your favorite cards, to fill gaps, or where the raw card you bought is particularly bad. For me, if I try more than once to buy a raw copy of a card and it comes back garbage, I will just set an ebay search for a PSA 9 graded copy.
Gonna pop in and say I collect both slabbed and binder cards but I’ve got a specific collecting style that I’ve made work for me. I collect both English and Japanese but exclusively English for binder/raw and Japanese for slabs. I like to display my cards and Japanese slabs are cheaper and have the same art so it works for me. For the binder cards, I collect English but primarily Black/White onwards since I like having full arts. I’ve also been cracking some PSA 9 slabs like @jonandek has since I want mint cards and it’s not the easiest to find the older full arts in mint condition. It comes down to what cards you collect though, the newer the card the less you need to buy graded since there should still be a lot of good quality raws available on ebay/tcgplayer.
If you’re okay with that 7-10 range, you don’t need to crack slabs as much but it is ultimately the easiest and most efficient for your time. You can also score some pretty reasonable prices on the 7/8s as a lot of the raw cards now go for that price as well so sometimes the odd card does come up that’s not too pricy graded.
I have a two full sets slabbed now and even more sets in binders. I prefer the slabbed sets personally, but the cost is just so much for any new cards I get that I just put them in the binder. I like the slabbed cards too because I can put them on display on the tiny easels. I only display three cards as not to get too cluttered, but when I was working a few years ago I’d have some on display in my office and people would always comment on them. Especially if you have a base Charizard on that rotation.
But I do agree with most that binders have a nostalgic factor and the ability to view cards in bulk and flip through pages is always nice.