[Exhibitman]

Everyone's assessment of how the card market is doing depends on your measuring points and your measurement choices.

On the one hand, I am picking up really nice raw 1960s-1970s and I am replacing my PSA 8-9 cards as quickly as I can with those raw picks because there is a ton of inventory. 4SC has opened a ton of raw stuff and has simultaneously bloated the market for raw (via its liquidator NESC) and collapsed the market for PSA cards in the 6-8 range from that era. I've all but stopped my PSA submissions because I literally lose money whenever I send in a card from that era unless it scores a 9 or 10, or is one of a handful of select rookies: 4SC offers them up slabbed at less than my peon-level grading cost. It is akin to a Wal-Mart opening in a small town and destroying the mom and pop stores. I'm dumping my PSA graded cards on eBay because I can replace them with raw cards in just as nice shape for a fraction of the price. I can see where the market would look really, really bad if your inventory was postwar mainstream 6-8 PSA cards, especially if you self-submitted. The sunk costs of slabbing alone would kill you.

On the other hand (my father once said he'd love to see a one-handed lawyer), I see a great opportunity for collectors who want to move into areas where there is a glut/depressed market. I've got a giant want list for the National but it is almost all cards that I expect to shop for and find very cheaply. I plan to shlep* home a big box of additions to my PC, more cards than ever before, with no plastic cases in sight.

*For the Yiddish-challenged, "to carry a burden"