Mid-Grade Collectors

[MCoxon]

Originally Posted by jchcollins

Another thought - for me at least, the definitions surrounding "mid-grade" seem to have shifted over time, at least certainly for older cards. Depending on who you are you probably think of mid-grade in the PSA 3 to 6 range. I don't know about the rest of you, but for me in the vast majority of cases - a PSA 6 is going to be a damn nice vintage card. No creases, sharp corners, and decent centering. When I was collecting as a kid, anything with the term "Excellent" in the grade was just that - and old cards that were "excellent" or better were at the higher end of the spectrum. I remember back then, my main concern with 1950's and 60's cards were that they be devoid of major, ugly creases. Even so, I had and loved some cards that did have those creases. Corners were of lesser concern, I did prefer that the cards have 4 of them. Centering I don't recall being something I was concerned about at all as a kid, I recently went back and found some snapshots of some parts of of my childhood collection that I no longer own, and was surprised at how badly centered certain vintage cards that I had and loved were.

I guess it's all about perspective and beauty in the eye of the beholder.

i was literally going to write the same sentiment. "Ex-MT" was often the highest listing I would see in many periodicals 30 years ago. Also, if you look at old Beckett guides, it would have "percent discount from mint" for various grades, and my recollection that Ex-Mt might have been at 75% of value of mint, whereas now, I notice almost a doubling at every PSA number grade for 1950s cards, so that a PSA 9 price (mint) would dwarf a PSA 6 in price.

I think grading has made what had been considered finite differences in card condition a glaring difference. I'm not sure that's helped the hobby one way or another, other than making some cards "Investment grade" due to being so much more "scarce". But the truth is, there were 100,000 1956 Mantles out there before grading and 100,00 after, it's just that now, we've gradated differences so that there only 200 PSA 8+ (not sure of these numbers). That strikes me as false scarcity, though many will say it's a misinterpretation of 'scarcity' and condition rarity exists in other collectible markets as well