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Posted By: Mark Anderson

The one million cards per year is a reasonable (and conservative) estimate. Exact numbers are confidential, but knowing we use sequential serial numbers, and growth since we first started grading in 1999, I'm not giving anything away that isn't already deducible (is that a word?) by the general public. The exact number, the breakdown of services, corporate orders, etc. are all confidential still. In the next SCD focusing on Grading, I think we mention that we've probably graded closer to 10-11 million cards with those corporate orders and such, since 1999.

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Oh and about the beer... funny enough, I specifically remember someone providing dealers pizza and beer kegs at the National a few years ago before the show opened to the public! I can't recall which company, nor how that went for them. Anyone else recall that? Maybe 5-7 years ago?

Personally, the idea conjures up horrifying images in my mind: a '52 Topps Mantle card swimming in beer spilled on the booth table; another customer in a beer-enhanced stupor trying to understand our service reps explaining how subgrades are calculated; beer mugs being hurled at reps handing back orders by customers upset about their card being altered. shudder I think we'll pass on the free beer