Grading Standards - New vs. Old

[Matthew H]

I personally don't see a need to grade cards, whether it be raw or in a slab. Everyone had a scanner now... Does anyone still buy cards sight unseen anymore?

[travrosty]

i agree, no need to grade cards, you can see the condition, doesnt matter if you call it good or pristine, it is what you see. and you can offer and pay for it accordingly. grading is a scam.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by travrosty

i agree, no need to grade cards, you can see the condition, doesnt matter if you call it good or pristine, it is what you see. and you can offer and pay for it accordingly. grading is a scam.

I disagree completely. Since you don't collect cards you have probably never paid 5 figures for a raw one with a guarantee, sent it in for grading and authentication, only to have the graders find some alteration you didn't catch. Then returning the card and getting your money back all the while saving thousands of dollars on the returning of it. I have.

[Jlighter]

It is hard to tell if a card is trimmed from a scan on a computer.

If I'm spending like, 5 dollars for a card, yeah I'll take the risk of it being fake or not. If I'm spending a 100 dollars, I would like a guarentee from a established company, not from someone that I've never met.

If I ever have to sell a card it is much easier to sell a graded one, then a non graded one.

[vintagetoppsguy]

The card in question looks G/VG to me.

I disagree about not grading cards. If I'm buying a card of any significant value online, I look for graded cards only. I don't care how good the scan is, sometimes a scan doesn't pick up tiny surface wrinkles or, as the previous poster stated, trimming.

However, if I'm buying the card in person, I don't mind buying raw at all. I've been doing this well over 25 years and I can spot just about anything in person that I might otherwise miss in a scan.

That said, I crack and display raw most of the graded cards that I buy.

[Bocabirdman]

Originally Posted by Matthew H

I personally don't see a need to grade cards, whether it be raw or in a slab. Everyone had a scanner now... Does anyone still buy cards sight unseen anymore?

When I was putting together my Sixties collection, I would routinely buy commons with out scans from top shelf guys (with a return policy in place). That's about as far as I would take it.