[Archive]

Posted By: Al C.risafulli

No.

I still embrace the concept of grading and I trust my grading company. I get my key cards graded mostly because they're all different card types, so the holder ties them together for display purposes. I'm also a klutz, so the holder protects the cards from my clumsy, shaky hands.

I think you're MUCH more likely to be satisfied with the condition of cards you buy on the internet when you buy them graded than you are when you buy them raw, you're much less likely to have problems with sellers, and you're much less likely to get an altered card. If you want to buy cards on the internet, or from private auctions, I think grading gives you a level of confidence that's lacking when you buy raw cards.

To me, a bunch of baseball cards lined up on shelves in my card room look like tiny baseball cards. When they're in holders, they look like works of art, in tiny frames. To me, they look absolutely gorgeous that way.

That said, there's still no substitute for your own brain, and I would never recommend buying ANYTHING - a baseball card, a car, a house, groceries - without knowing what you're buying. Grading, to me, just helps fill in the knowledge gaps.

As far as autographs are concerned, when Jimmy Spence looked at a letter I was holding in my hand (the signature was on the back, so he couldn't see it) and recognized the handwriting as that of George Kelly, I was sold. Making the "mistake" of not properly identifying the forged signature of Sal Bando at a show where Sal Bando was actually present, signing autographs, does not constitute an error of significant magnitude, IMO. At the same time, just like every other company in every other industry, I expect that JSA will occasionally make an error or a misjudgement. In business, it's not whether or not you make mistakes, it's how you recover from them that counts.

IMO.

-Al