Man, if only this were the case. I have only been in this hobby since the summer, I’m still a noob. But after purchasing over a hundred cards on eBay the main thing i learned early on when buying raw is judge the card for yourself the best you can by asking questions, asking for more pictures, and looking at pictures very closely. The condition labels are so subjective and often times flat out inaccurate.
The amount of times I have received a card labeled as NM or mint with a bend or a dent is more than I’d like to admit. I will not buy a card now without asking the seller if there are any first. And I still receive cards that have a bend or a dent on them even though the seller said there were none, and the card was labeled as nm or mint.
As frustrating as it can be, I do think it adds to the fun of buying raw. It makes the feeling you get when you do find a truly beautiful card that much sweeter. Just as people overestimate condition with labels, they also underestimate sometimes as well.
@silver , yes, never go off anyone’s word for condition unless they are tried and true. Most people on ebay are hacks. They can’t be trusted to scrutinize a card. Let’s put it this way: grades mean nothing on ebay, with the above stated exception.
There are certain sellers off tcgplayer that know what they are doing. You can trust those people. But ebay? Shit. Not a chance. The only people who know how to grade on there are probably all E4 people or crossover people from tcgplayer and such. I was actually just talking to one of the owners/proprietors of Yeti Gaming. Just found out they are on the forum, and I commended them for being basically the best big seller on Tcgplayer. You buy NM from them on a raw card, it will be stellar condition. I have been SO happy with their grades. I buy LP on tcgplayer from them and they, on average, turn out to be PSA 7 worthy (sometimes even better). A true card expert company.
This thread has been really enlightening as I shop around for raw cards to grade, it’s really tough for a new collector to gauge. I’ve been especially struggling with Japanese sellers on ebay using white backgrounds and seemingly hiding the whitening…
Yeti Gaming is solid. I’ve gotten some of my nicest condition EX Series holos from them. Some of the cleanest, pack fresh holo surfaces I’ve found buying raw cards. I even replaced a former PSA 8 ex in one of my sets with an LP card I purchased from them. It was in vastly better condition than the PSA 8. They’re a great vendor. They have occasionally been inaccurate with distinguishing between reverse and regular holos, but I’ve always forgiven it because they otherwise do such an awesome job.
There are even better vendors, though. I know of at least a few TCGPlayer vendors where LP = consistently PSA 8/9 quality. But I’ve long since bought their entire inventories of cards that I wanted lol. Two vendors who I’ll mention because they have very little inventory left at this point: Graded Power and CardboardKrackShack. With those two, NM is always PSA 9/10, and LP is typically 8.
Japanese sellers are very hit or miss. I’ve received so many damaged cards from Japanese vendors, but I’ve also found a couple vendors who have sent consistently fantastic condition cards. It’s just a matter of trial and error.
Luckily eBay is very good about refunds when the card is not as described, regardless of whether the seller is willing or not. Every card that has come damaged I have been able to get a full refund for, by showing the damage and either the message with seller saying there was none, or the description being something like nm or mint.
Maybe I will start giving tcg a try. I’ve had a lot of success on eBay but I’m always open to new options. If you don’t mind, could you pm me the name of these sellers youre talking about on tcg that you trust so much? I wouldn’t mind paying market price for the peace of mind of knowing the card will come as advertised.
Edit: and as zorloth said, I’ll check out Yeti too and those TCG sellers! Appreciate it guys!
Yea some sellers on eBay or great. There was one seller I found who was listing mint condition cards for dirt cheap. I received my only few likely psa 10s from her. The deals were so good I would sit there with a page refreshing app on her newly listed sometimes haha. Because I ended up buying so many of her cards she sent me a neo rev holo Lugia FOR FREE. It’s in about psa 6 condition I estimate but those raw are still going for a pretty penny. Blown away by how nice some people can be on there.
Hey guys, pretty specific stonking question purely regarding resale value of CGC vs PSA.
I have about 150 mint vintage Japanese Vending and Neo promo cards (10% PSA 8 quality, 70% PSA 9 quality, 20% PSA 10 quality) with approx. values mostly about $60 - $200.
It seems that CGC 9 and PSA 9 are fairly equal in sold prices, but PSA 10 is waaay above CGC 9.5.
How would you go about it? Send Gem Mint candidates to PSA and the likely 9s to CGC for faster turnaround? Or all to one company?
Never submitted anything anywhere so far.
Thanks in advance!
I was hunting for raw Munch cards and noped out of that really quickly when I saw the kind of pictures they were taking and their item descriptions… Scary stuff
So interesting as that’s just not the kind of experience I had visiting or interacting with any aspect of Japan before! I did end up picking up swallowed whole and shibuya pikachu’s which looked clean but I guess I’ll see… in like a month haha
It’s bizarre because Japanese MTG sellers are notorious for being obscenely strict graders. As in NM = PSA 10 and SP/LP/EX = PSA 9. But Japanese Pokemon card sellers are just all over the place. But that’s kind of just a thing with the Pokemon market in general lol. 99% of people have zero clue how to grade cards and/or have a terrible eye for detail.
His name is @andyk. (Sorry for the plug man, figured you wouldn’t mind seeing these great people praise you and your family’s work! May it bring you further business my friend!)
Yeah @muk I would just send all to one company. Honestly I’d say go with whatever is cheaper per card. There wouldn’t be a substantial difference in profits. Saves money on shipping.
Or…
Or you could send me some of those fine beauties because I love ya and always have
Yeah it’d definitely be easier to send them all to one place. I’m still a bit torn because on one hand I despise almost every aspect of PSA as a business: their customer service practises, their upcharges, the ridiculous turnaround times etc.
On the other hand, since these cards shall be graded for the sole reason of getting sold, I can’t just ignore the premium a PSA 10 carries over a CGC 9.5 (and I don’t think I could get a single CGC 10 tbh). But neither can I ignore the fact that I’ll have to wait 12 months before I can sell ANY of the PSA cards when they’re stuck in the backlog.
Maybe the easiest way with the least amount of headache would really be just to send to send them to you @brendantheclayboy and be done with it haha.
Send them to me too! But in all seriousness, cgc 9.5 is actually pretty great, I’ve seen auctions go for significantly more than psa 9. Especially I’d you have subgrades
But yeah man, I hate PSA too but you might have to go with them. Word is CGC is getting ridiculous with times too. But I’m not the guy to answer this with true conviction. I might not know some good argument for CGC in the end. I personally would do PSA just 'cause it is the most pervasive/recognizable and all that.
