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Posted By: James Gallo

Slabbing is almost a necessary evil. It may have started with coins, but has moved on to cards, comics, action figures and now I hear they are slabbing stamps too.

The benefits to it are important in this internet generation. Everything is sold on the net and even with good pictures it can be hard to know if a card has been altered.

To me the biggest things grading has to offer are

1. An expected consistency. You have an idea of what to expect when you buy a PSA 2 or PSA 8 card. They might not all look the same but you shouldn't get something that is way off (Although I know this does happen)

2. Peace of mind that the product your buying is what the seller states it is and that the piece is not altered. Certain things you may have trouble seeing even with a good scan. Take Black marker on the edges of a card. In person it would be easy to spot but with a picture maybe not so much.

3. An average/expected price. Although IMO this isn't really the case with pre-war or high end cards as the prices seem all over the map to me.

4. In a certain aspect cards do become a commodity. They become almost liquid once graded. This is by product and certainly not something that was planned but more developed because of the whole internet explosive. How easy is it to post a card on ebay with a BIN and have it sold and get paid for in less then 5 minutes.

5. Insurance. Much easier to insurance and list cards and you will have much less of a problem if something happens as there won't be an issue of subjective grading.

6. New collectors. I think it helps new collectors get a feel for a set. I have picked up a couple odd graded cards and they have opened me up to new sets which I have then in turn gone on to collect and research.

There may be others that I can't think of off hand.
All this being said I do agree that the base idea for grading was to essentially make a new product so that the grading company could make a profit off others lack of knowledge.
This can be seen perfectly with all the "new" products such as ticket and autograph grading as well as specific sized slabs for specific cards.

If the demand is big enough you can bet someone will come up with a way to implement it.

James Gallo

Looking for 1915 Cracker Jacks and 1909-11 American Caramel E90-1.