Slab Crackers Unite!
 

What's the biggest card you've ever cracked free from its slab? I'll start.

I cracked this beauty...to get it graded by PSA...sadly I no longer own it!

t206 Walter Johnson Portrait, PSA 4.

At PSA for the 2nd time trying to get that 5

That is rough. That is a really nice card. I think you should get a 5, but every order of mine has at least one card I can't figure out.

Yesterday’s 5 is today’s 4

I have seen 6s and 7s in old holders that aren't as nice as that Mantle RC.

You guys are way ahead of me.

I cracked a PSA 8 1978 Topps Nolan Ryan because it was the only slabbed card in a binder set I own.

I have a 100% raw collection.

Cracked this bad boy last week. F slabs.

Here's my slabbed crackers!!!

I think it was a T206 Cobb bat off... I crack so many, maybe it was something else. I have a Mathewson E102 that I've been thinking about liberating.

I'm not sure that breaking a slab to get something reslabbed should count. It's like moving a prisoner from one prison to another.

I cracked out about a third of the cards in my T3 set including the following big 3.

I cracked out the Rookie Eddie Mathews and traded it for the Red Cobb a fellow member cracked out.:D

I no longer have either card and sure miss Eddie.:(

Loving all these freed cards. Maybe I’ll crack some more today!

I don't have pics anymore but in 2009 I cracked a GAI 8 T205 Johnson and had it regraded by SGC to a 7. Sold in the REA auction in 2010 I believe.

Haven't cracked, but I'm thinking about it. What is everyone using to protect the cards though? One touches? top loaders?

I’ve only cracked 52-56 topps and I use the specialty sized recessed screw downs shown in my Jackie pic.

The only reason I don’t crack my Goudeys is because I haven’t found anything I like better to display / store them in.

Cracked slab Delahanty
 

I cracked a Mayo's Cut Plug N300 #1895 SGC50 Ed Delahanty about ten years ago so it would fit in my display.

Slab Crackers Unite!
 

I’ve cracked probably somewhere near 100 in my “career”. Not sure what would be the biggest, but these were two recent ones:

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...dd978b118f.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...e87f506330.jpg



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Ah, I know what it was. I popped a PSA 1 T206 Johnson portrait, because I wanted it in an SGC slab and not PSA. It came out beautifully, and SGC decided it was a 1.5 instead of a 1!

And this, which I also wanted in an SGC tux and not PSA. The grade between the two did not change.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...2e8fd4a0eb.jpg


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Recently cracked Speaker out of his SGC tomb!

Tony

Has anyone used a Dremel to separate the sides of the case in the past?

What slab would need a dremel? Any knife will easily pop a old PSA or any SGC slab. With a little work the new PSA slabs also pop apart without breaking then. Never cracked a Beckett slab.

You guys are all much braver than me. The only single card I have cracked out of a slab since I got back into the hobby 18 months ago was a 1970 SGC 60/5 Thurman Munson rookie.

And I have probably bought somewhere around 500-750 slabs in that time.

It was experimental. The card is really nice and sharp. The front looks like it could be a 6 or 7, but the back is miscut. For that reason I probably would have been better off keeping it in the slab, but all of my RCs post 1965 are ungraded and so it keeps up with the spirit of that personal collecting rule.

2 of the more expensive I've cracked ... now reside in my binder.

The Cobb was in an SGC 40 case, from the infamous Leon Luckey Collection.
The Mantle was in an SGC 60 case, even though it has a corner wrinkle on the back. If I resubmit 100 times I'd never get higher than SGC 40.

Yeah, I personally would keep power tools out of it. Slow and steady with a small flathead screwdriver does the trick every time.

Do you like them better in slabs? If so, leave them in. I don’t, so I crack them. There’s no right or wrong, just don't collect scared.

Those look soooo much nicer out of a slab!

Thanks. Unfortunately they are going back. The '61 AS I wanted out of PSA, and the '65 I think was legit undergraded the first time by SGC (got a 5). We'll see. Both are at SGC now.

Who is "Tristram"? :eek:

My bad. That is actually how you spell his given name. I would have foregone the second R...

Does anyone have a video of you removing a card from a slab? I'm paranoid that I would mess up the card.

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There’s tons on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B6y6JsrfjM

Start at the 1:30 mark

Have done this many many times - never an issue

That Cobb is beautiful! Congrats. That would be the crowning jewel of my or most any T213 collection.

Thanks! That looks incredibly easy.

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I cracked a 1969 Topps Mickey Mantle White Letter PSA 5 EX. Probably shouldn't have, it would be worth a lot more nowadays in the case.
When grading started, I wasn't sure if I wanted in on it or not. Right off the bat, I had several bad experiences with PSA. For one, I wasn't impressed with their grading acumen. I would see a card graded EX, and it would be VG/EX at best.
Then I bought that Mantle. It was in a telephone auction, no pictures provided. This was way before eBay. The auction would always describe ungraded cards, and their description would always be very accurate. When graded cards started showing up, the telephone auction wouldn't give a description of those cards, just the grade.
It turned out the Mantle had a very pronounced slant cut, like a parallelogram. PSA had no qualifiers on the grade, just a straight 5. Needless to say, I was very disappointed when I received it.
Although the card I received way back then is well worth what I paid for it, if it was a true 5 it would be worth so much more.
I've always thought SGC is way more accurate and consistent in their grading. It is amazing how much PSA has been able to dominate the market. Especially when you consider the first card ever graded by PSA was the hand cut T206 Honus Wagner which got PSA NM/MT 8, instead of an authentic, as it should have. Is it the Registry that makes them #1 ?
While I now own a decent amount of graded cards, I have still never sent a card in to be graded. I always try to stick to "buy the card, not the holder".

Let'm breathe!

http://www.t206.org/misc/cracked-slab-labels.png

National
 

Borrowed a screwdriver from BBCE and proceeded to free the Mantle.

Trae,

That's a beautiful binder with those black page separators. Very classy looking. Where did you get the separators?

If the grading companies were really thinking meta-game they would be starting Slab Cracking Facebook groups and forums...

Love this, super cool. I am a binder guy as well. Built some graded sets and top load / CS1 sets and they were such a pain to view. Binder is where it is at.

Slab Crackers Unite!
 

Well. In support of my slab crackers resume, I did just find all this. Willie here looks on proudly. I'm not sure where his flip is, but he was a PSA 7. :-)

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...e45c573df8.jpg

A whole lotta crackin goin on!

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I have freed a lot of the commons from my signed 1963 Fleer set, but this is probably the most valuable card I've cracked out.

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dIkC0nRv8.../1955T_123.jpg

And given that they are selling for upwards of $1500 and I am unlikely to ever finish that 1955 set, I probably shouldn't have.

I started to have doubts about cracking some of the cards I have but after seeing what you all have done I feel better about it now. Maybe I’ll crack all my slapped cards now. (Besides 33 Goudey)

Cracked some football cards today! I was amazed how easy it was to do.

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I've only done a few and nothing pre-war:
1969 Nolan Ryan
1975 Robin Yount
1980 Rickey Henderson

All to get signed...I would be really nervous cracking a big $ card, especially out of the new PSA holders, the last one I did really splintered. The early ones seem to be a piece of cake though.

I don't have high dollar cards (less than $250 ea.). I crack all of them. (Also, not sure why sellers slab $10 (ie; cheap) cards? And even sell them for less....wasted plastic and postage).