[hcv123]

But not entirely.

Firstly I will say that centering, surface (creases, etc), and registration are WAY more important to me than corners. Moving on - it really depends on the card and it's scarcity. For readily available cards, I draw the line somewhere between 7 and 8 (rarely 8.5) - The price jump on most readily available cards from 8 to 9 is usually astronomical with often times very little difference in appearance. Add to that the inherent subjectivity to the process and I as I'm sure many of you have seen lower grade cards that look better than the same card at higher grade. There is consideration to value and resale and I believe that lower grades of more readily available cards over time have less of a chance to hold their value than higher graded equivalents.

Now onto more obscure or rare cards - to me the card trumps the condition on these - not only would I jump on a mid grade copy of some, but would be overjoyed for almost any copy - I do have a handful in my collection and love them as much or more than my more highly graded more commonly found cards.

I am working on mid grade Pirates team sets from 1952-1973 with my kids - The only ones we have or are getting graded are the 1952 Groat rookie and the 1952 High numbers(4's-6's) - the rest are/will be raw. Let me tell you - trying to find those 52's centered without surface damage is quite a challenge! Anybody know someone who wants to sell a mid grade 1952 Bartirome for the price of the common it should be without the one crazy guy buying them all!?