First post here and am happy to be here. I am currently 28 and collected Pokemon heavily through Gym Leaders. There were many times I debated on getting rid of my cards after they were passed onto my brother and he left them but I held onto them as I moved. In the past few months I have gotten back into collecting heavily but am only collecting for the WOTC era. As a kid, I didn’t know about grading (if it was even around) but I am incredibly interested. The main reasons are like many preservation and resell value. I got my first slab about a month ago and absolutely love being able to hold the card and show it off without fearing that I may ruin it.
I sent off 7 cards to CGC a weeks ago that I opted to get sub grades on all of them for. I will be sending a bulk submission of at least 50 cards in the next few weeks that consists of Southern Islands, Base Set, Black Star, and a few random cards. Some of what I am submitting in that Bulk I have no intention of selling while a few of the items I will only be grading to then sell. So my question is to those that either have graded with Becket in the past or CGC or really anyone that can chime in. What cards are worth subgrading? For the sake of my own personal collection I think I really like it to understand why I got the grades I got and also just the way it fills the slab. However, for cards I will be selling I really do not feel I need to know this. Some of the cards that I am slabbing are not necessarily very expensive cards so I am wondering if that sub grades will help with resell and I can just recoup the cost of $4-5 per card or is it a waste and I just go with the regular grade.
I am going round and around and would love to hear your thoughts.
I hate that BGS and CGC offer options without subgrades especially given how much the additional charge is to get the data that they are gathering anyways. Pretty substantial.
I did my first submission with CGC without subs and won’t do that again. Their main draw for me is subs and its something I personally like to see so I’m going to get as many cards out there with subgrades as I can. Helps me learn more about their grading scale too.
I agree that you always want subs if keeping for your personal collection and especially if the card is on the more valuable side. I also think it makes the label more aesthetically pleasing. If you are flipping modern cards, however, you can help your margins by leaving them off
@pokecollectoramy most definitely but I’ve decided to sacrifice margin to put them on personally. You can get stupid margin on anything and everything right now IMO so if/when that changes I’ll just have to be more selective in what I send in. Right now it is just too easy.
Yes you lose margins, but you also lose resale value by not having them. As a buyer I would glad pay the $5 extra for the same card and grade if I had to decide between a copy with subgrades, and without.
The initial cost is more. That doesn’t mean you lose margins, that will vary based on the result of the subgrades and you could optimize margins based on when you did and didn’t subgrade.
I feel like a card without subgrades from a company that offers them isn’t a graded card without an extra feature. It’s a half graded card.
I’m all aboard the subs every time train. Every card I’ve submitted without subs I regret having done so. It’s tough to imagine you can’t get a few bucks extra out of the card with subs. And I haven’t seen anyone refusing to buy slabs, if they wanted them anyway, because subs were present. Only because they weren’t.
100% agree with this. Think about it this way, if you absolutely want subgrades for things that are staying in your personal collection, don’t you think someone buying the cards you’re selling would want subgrades as well since they are most likely adding it to theirs? I think most people would be willing to spend $5 more for a card with subgrades vs one without if given the choice between the two.
I honestly don’t like the clutter of the label on personal collection items but I outright know what I like isn’t what most like . Makes sense to just get sub grades across the board. Maybe not on something like an errror card that’s damaged, but then again why not.
Well I wish that I could quote everybody since there was a lot of great feedback that I am appreciative of. I think the overall theme here is that sub grades are absolutely worth it. I am really surprised that I did not think of it that way. If I want my collection with them I am sure others do to and would be willing to pay a few extra dollars for it. I am new to grading cards and the idea of spending $500-$600 is a bit intimidating to me. With that being said I think it is just something that I need to get used to the idea of. With me being new to grading, I have watched a TON of videos on returns to see grades people are getting to get a better idea of what cards I have may grade at. Having the sub grades should also help me to understand what I can expect to get for a specific quality of card. I am very excited for my first small 7 card submission to come back. Thank you
I go back to putting a lot of fault on the grading companies for:
Offering the no subgrade service to begin with.
Overpricing the fuck out of subgrades.
A $5 upcharge on an $8 service when literally all it entails is $0.0001 of ink because the subgrades are already determined as a part of finding the final grade. Just charge $9 or $10 or hell even $12.99 on all your cards and auto include the subgrades.
I know why they do it, because they don’t want their cheapest option to be more expensive than the other guys and it is extra hard on a new entrant into the market because you need to give people a reason to go with you and carve out market share. I think grading companies need to just stop chasing the bargain basement bulk grading of 10 cent cards and do more to differentiate and prove why they are worth paying more.
Do you really feel like subgrades add value on non-holo set cards? If you have a bunch of PSA/CGC 9 quality 1st fossil/jungle commons and uncommons, I can’t see subgrades making or breaking a sale. For someone trying to collect an entire set of 40+ cards from the same grading comapny, getting them all with matching subgrades would drive me insane. I’d rather have the same consistent whole number on the grade value. The only exception being if everything I was grading was 10 quality, and I wanted the subgrades to back that up.
subs generally help your sales if you are looking to offload them. BUT this is not b&w. at BGS, if your card scores the pristine 10, they’ll give you the subs for FREE even tho you paid for the price of no subs.
I don’t but I’m still putting them on them out of principle.
I disagree with other sentiments that subs can only increase the value of your cards too. I would strongly suspect that a flat CGC 9 would sell better than an 8, 9.5, 9.5, 9 CGC 9 (I think that makes a 9) on something random like a non holo 1st 10 cent WOTC card as you mention.
Agreed. My post earlier in this thread stating every holo should have subgrades was because surface condition is such an important condition aspect of a holo, that isn’t nearly as important on non-holos. Also holo cards tend to be more valuable than non-holos, so on cards say over $50 it makes sense to have a more detailed summary of the cards condition.
In my opinion if the company you are grading with offers sub grades you should always take them. If the card isn’t worth spending an extra $5 on, it probably isn’t even worth grading.
. Makes sense to just get sub grades across the board. Maybe not on something like an errror card that’s damaged, but then again why not.