Breaking Out

I am sure everyone has done this in the past or even now. I know I am guilty a few times.

What is your opinion on Breaking Cards out of the holders after grading or buying graded

All the recent buying of cards for me and some of them just for the backs has really gotten me into the POP reports like never before. I know that not every card is still slabbed but do you think this is going to damage the hobby?? If you think there are more than there really is won't that decrease the value of those cards??? I would also think that without dead accurate POP's that it is alot harder to determine SP's and Values.

I am interested in hearing what you guys/gals have to say about this.

[Matt]

Pop reports are not accurate at all for saying there are exactly 73 of a certain card. However, I believe those inaccuracies are generally uniform over the entire sample, meaning that, if one common card from a certain issue has a pop of 20 and another common from that same issue has a pop of 60, we can say that the first one indeed is a SP.

[Leon]

The title of this thread had me worried for a minute .

[Scott T]

I think there are numerous slabbed cards that have been opened and the new "raw" cards are represented at a higher grade by some sellers. A "3" or "4" might be said to be "Ex or better".

Thankfully, I have always had good luck with purchases on the B/S/T board here.

I routinely send PSA cards to SGC to be crossed over so all cards in a particular set will have a degree of uniformity. (See also: anal retentive and OCD) It would be nice of PSA and SGC could have some kind of a clearing house for their registries to ensure a more accurate count.

Originally Posted by Scott T

"raw" cards are represented at a higher grade by some sellers. A "3" or "4" might be said to be "Ex or better".

Yeah I must say I feel that way about a few transactions. Paying for high grade and getting stuff I can't(won't) register because the grade is below 4. Never can trust anyone to much and I am pretty much done from now on buying raw unless I get GREAT pics and am paying a bit under to cover partial grading.