Quote:
Originally Posted by ronniehatesjazz
I agree with a little of what everyone has said here. I personally love sgc slabs for prewar. That being said I have a few raw matty’s In basic screw downs that look incredible as is. I think it really comes down to taste up until a certain figure. I think it’s foolish to purchase anything north of $1k raw. If you wanna crack after buying then that’s your prerogative but given the shadiness in the hobby I think it’s best to buy the slabs for any nominal large purchase. In an extreme example can you imagine someone forking over $100k on a raw Wagner? Why take chances in such situations.
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+1, but I would lower the threshold to $500.00. There's still a lot of scammers out there (as there is wherever it is perceived there is quick, nearly effortless money to be made), and although the grading companies don't catch all of the scammers' machinations, my opinion is that they do catch most of it. So marketability is a prime concern, and if you're interested in value appreciation, grading IMHO is definitely the way to go. If you're buying raw, you'd better have knowledge and experience as to the tricks of the scammers' trade, such as putting the cards through a paper mill/press (or just the corners) to make them slightly larger, then trimming them back to size with the appearance of NrMt-Mt corners (you will need to examine the edges under magnification to ascertain whether this has been done, and know what the edges are supposed to look like as cut from the factories); coloring added to the card to conceal wear (such as black ink or even crayon on what appear to be very nice examples of '71 Topps baseball cards), which you will need magnification or even a black light to detect; etc, etc.
And many counterfeits are also still being made. At the 2009 National in Cleveland, a dealer had what was presented to be an example of a 1914 Baltimore News Babe Ruth on display. I politely asked if I might examine the card with my 16X loupe, and was not surprised to see the irregular, random dot pattern that is produced by taking a picture of a real card, re-screening it, and printing the card from there. Real halftone printing of vintage cards leaves a linear, regular dot pattern in comparison.
I presently collect a certain set with many short-prints in it, some of which are tremendously tough to obtain, and of necessity, buy most of these raw, usually on ebay. But I check them when I receive them to ascertain they are not counterfeit.
Summing up, it is both safer and better for marketability and value appreciation to buy graded cards past a certain value point.
Just my $2.50 worth,
Larry