Slab Crackers Unite!

[Cmvorce]

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

[ullmandds]

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

[Mark]

t206 Walter Johnson Portrait, PSA 4.

[ajjohnsonsoxfan]

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

[rats60]

Originally Posted by ajjohnsonsoxfan

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.

[ajjohnsonsoxfan]

Originally Posted by rats60

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

[davidb]

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

[jchcollins]

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






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[jchcollins]

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!

[icollectDCsports]

Originally Posted by jchcollins

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






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Those look soooo much nicer out of a slab!

[jchcollins]

Originally Posted by icollectDCsports

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.

[jchcollins]

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




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[Kidnapped18]

Recently cracked Speaker out of his SGC tomb!

Tony

[Tere1071]

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

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by Tere1071

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.

[Kutcher55]

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.

[conor912]

Originally Posted by Tere1071

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

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

[jchcollins]

Originally Posted by Kidnapped18

Recently cracked Speaker out of his SGC tomb!

Tony

Who is "Tristram"?

[jchcollins]

Originally Posted by jchcollins

Who is "Tristram"?

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

[I Only Smoke 4 the Cards]

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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[conor912]

Originally Posted by I Only Smoke 4 the Cards

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.

[toledo_mudhen]

Originally Posted by I Only Smoke 4 the Cards

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

Start at the 1:30 mark

Have done this many many times - never an issue

[I Only Smoke 4 the Cards]

Originally Posted by toledo_mudhen

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



Start at the 1:30 mark



Have done this many many times - never an issue

Thanks! That looks incredibly easy.

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[cannonballsun]

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".

[T206.org]

Let'm breathe!

[I Only Smoke 4 the Cards]

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

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[hammertime]

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.

[Case12]

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).

[jchcollins]

Well, as a followup to another post yesterday where I was very happy with a graded card return, today is where I report that I cracked the key card in that return because SGC sent me back a faulty gasket in the slab with shards of plastic sticking out and touching the card. Unfortunately - at least for the foreseeable future - they've lost me as a customer. Actually, this may be a turning point of sorts for me in terms of what is really important in this hobby.

As was said at the start of this thread, "F slabs." Yep. That is certainly the mindset I find myself in this morning.

[bnorth]

Got this one in the mail today and freed it from its prison within minutes.

[jchcollins]

My latest liberation. This was an older PSA slab, which had some of those tiny phantom plastic pieces sealed up with it, and they looked particularly crappy against that ‘71 black. I’ve never understood why PSA can’t QC some of that type stuff better.




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[JollyElm]

Originally Posted by jchcollins

My latest liberation. This was an older PSA slab, which had some of those tiny phantom plastic pieces sealed up with it, and they looked particularly crappy against that ‘71 black. I’ve never understood why PSA can’t QC some of that type stuff better.

You are a courageous man. Of all the cards ever produced, 1971s are the ones that need to be housed untouched in protective plastic bunkers. If you even look at them wrong way, their edges begin turning white.