The value of your collection is irrelevent? I don’t agree with that at all. There’s a chance you decide to trade off parts one day you never thought you would. There’s also passing your collection on to family or kids one day, etc etc.
Also your second point is complicated, you need to specify. If you’re implying people selling at a loss, thats because people grade in bulk hoping for 10s, then sell everything else off at a loss. If you mean people who grade commons from when they were kids, or cheap V cards to keep forever, I think they’re rather doing it as a joke, or theyre hoping it increases in value one day.
You have yet to present a single other reason to grade cards.
The whole point behind grading cards is for condition. Turns out some people have different ideas of what nm, lp, and other conditions are. Grading a card allows for a non biased third party to say what the condition of a card is. This eliminates the guesswork for both the seller and buyer. This might be a hard concept to wrap your smooth brain around
… Right, you have your card professionally confirmed as being in good condition… to sell it for more money. You agreed with me then called me a smooth brain.
Unless youre saying people grade cards, and confirm their bad condition… specifically so that they’re worth less? You referred to removing the guesswork for buyers and sellers, so you agree with me that grading is market based. I can’t tell what you’re trying to say here.
I feel like I could understand this years ago when there wasn’t as huge a market as there is today. I think that today though, there are much more cost efficient ways of protecting your cards, and the people grading with XYZ grading “for protection” are sort of kidding themselves.
As a collector, I want to collect cards in the best condition possible. Graded cards add a way to verify that the cards in my collection are indeed mint or the condition I want.
Wouldn’t this imply the grading companies are without flaw then? I assume this also means you only grade with whoever is the harshest grader in your opinion, too.
Also, out of curiosity, what does the verification add to the condition? Grades are fully, 100% subjective, and not only vary from company to company, but from grader to grader.
Nothing is without flaw, but the vast majority of grades are within the parameters. Grades are not fully 100% subjective. For example, on PSA’s website they lay out what exactly constitutes each grade. Grades vary from company to company, but thats obvious, and I don’t exactly know how that is relevant. You might send a card in 10 times and have it come back the same grade 9/10 times. It isn’t a perfect system but for the most part it is consistent.
So you want your cards to meet the standards of a specific grading company then, such as PSA?
Why do you think you’d want a card meeting the standards of one company over another? Trust, lack of mistakes, etc I figure. I see how this could make sense, however, I feel that a PSA 10 is the same in or out of the case, aside from the value the label adds. As far as protection goes, that isnt unique to the slab; on the other hand, the value increase is.
Not tryna be annoying btw, just curious because this is the first genuine argument I’ve heard for grading cards outside of value.
No one needs to be banned for such a benign opinion lol
I’ve sent in dozens of cards for grading where value contributed to 0% or very close to 0% of the decision.
Played prerelease ex era cards I received myself. Lopunny cards where I’m literally the only person who wants it. Autographed cards personalized to me. PSA 4 gold star rayquaza I pulled myself that I hope to never sell. Cards worth less than the cost of grading to put together a nice graded set of something.
With regards to the toilet paper analogy, my point was that the bottom line dollar cost is only one of many factors that one has to weigh when making decisions. Why don’t I just use the lowest cost protection option? Because I dont want to? I’d rather pay more and get the label and a sealed case for certain cards just like on some days I’d rather use softer toilet paper. It’s pretty simple to understand that the optimization problem includes more than just the bottom line cost.
I also have had many cards graded without any consideration of value, and with no intention of selling.
I enjoy collecting master sets. Yet I also enjoy having graded cards. A lot. So much so that I broke apart my binders last year and I submitted many cards for grading. I like the protection, aesthetic, and yes, the non-biased grade that the slab provides. The added value and increased liquidity applies to some but certainly not all cards that I get graded.
If it wasn’t for the cost I would gladly slab entire sets, commons and all. If PSA grading ever returns to $10 I may in fact do just that for some of my favorite sets.
Case in point: When I was (very) bored I went through ~7000 bulk Evolutions cards and I identified my 4 best examples of every unique card. For instance, out of the ~100 Evolutions Charmanders I own, I’ve already set aside my 4 best examples, the ones most likely to get PSA 10. I did that for every non-holo in the set. When/if grading returns to $10 I am prepared to send that stack of “perfect” Evolutions non-holo cards to PSA.
I mention that only because it is a concrete example of having cards graded for absolutely no practical monetary benefits. It would be ludicrous to grade regular Evolutions Rattatas. Yet as a set collector I may do it for the sake of obtaining a fully-graded set.
Prior to 1999 I graded for value (this was the Shop At Home period).
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From 1999 thru 2002 I graded for fun.
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From 2003-2005 me and Ebirdman graded as a way to bring back some interest in the hobby during a down time. We felt it would make it fun for others in a new and innovative way.
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From 2006-present I’ve graded for designation. At my age I felt it was only responsible to have a cards condition and origin be a part of it to make it easier on my heirs.
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Of course there’s some exceptions in all the categories but I’m speaking mostly.
So @dev, …as a strategy, for fun, for value, and finally for designation has been my road. Surely more reasons can be added to it by others. I trust you can now see that your statement , “people stating that they grade their cards for any other reason (other than increasing value) are simply lying” is not only shortsighted but insulting:(
I guess my brain must have so many wrinkles, because I use listing pictures, description, and my own two eyes to determine if a card meets my own made-up standards.
