The business end of this hobby always has been and always will be about money. Let's not kid ourselves.
Many collectors moved to raw cards during the backlog and stayed there in response to the high cost of grading. It was different when there were low cost specials. Sure, I would drop eight bucks plus shipping to get a bunch of $200-ish vintage cards slabbed. 4% was reasonable. But at $18.99 per card now (9.5%), not so much. It just eats up too much of the margin, especially when online sales costs are factored in.
|