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Posted By: barrysloate

But Frank- with so many cards trading in the thousands of dollars, they really are commodities. The days of them being sentimental pieces of cardboard are dwindling. I think as the hobby evolves, it will become a pastime of the very rich. As for Adam's comment that grading prevents a dealer from calling a raw card NR MT when it is in fact a PSA 3, there is a related issue that has long bothered me. If I were to sell a raw card as NR MT, and it came back from a service as EX-MT (which really is a subtle and subjective difference) even though I have been grading cards for almost 25 years and the professional grader might be doing it for six months, I would lose that argument 100% of the time. No one would accept my grade, and would only acknowledge the grader's opinion. And that would be something I wouldn't even attempt to defend, as I know I couldn't possibly win.