Posted By:
JimCrandell"I can only imagine how bad it was before slbs came about"
Jeff,
Exactly. I was there and the hobby was slipping to the point that it would shut down. I think the final non-graded card auction that Superior Sportcard had, a major part of their auction had no bids(and they started their nrmt-mt non-graded cards at half Beckett). I got a call from Greg Busseneau the next morning offering me a huge number of cards at the opening bid. Alan Rosen had all kinds of mint ungraded material and the stuff would go for the minimum or maybe one bid over.
You're right--many still sttempt to alter cards to get them into higher numbered holders but there can be absolutely no question that with graded cards we are in a vastly superior position to where we were 15-20 years ago.