Adventures in Slab Cracking

[jchcollins]

I've kind of stopped, but in my "career" since re-entering the vintage hobby probably about 6 years ago, I'm going to guess I've cracked around 50 different slabs. My OCD used to get to me with cards that moved around in their slabs. It's just visually upsetting on some level, and I used to be afraid that the rails on PSA slabs would somehow damage the card. Years later, I'm convinced I was wrong on this point. The cards move yes, but I think the physics of things within the slab itself is kind of such so that no real damage can be done. Yes, your card might hit the rail with an edge, but 99% of the time it's just not going to be moving fast enough or with enough force to hurt it. I wouldn't advise using your Mantle slabs as air hockey pucks, but all that said - I've never seen a PSA card truly "damaged" just by subtle movement within the slabs.

I stopped cracking upon that realization and plus - if you occasionally sell cards of any value - it's still just far easier to move a graded vintage card for the price you want than a raw one. Fact of life. I've always had a high level love / hate relationship with grading anyway: Raw cards are beautiful, and I've known how to grade myself for more than 30 years. But a properly graded card in a nice slab with no problems is also a thing of beauty - and in some odd way satisfies my need for order and alignment in the universe.

Beckett slabs aren't actually as difficult as their reputation to bust. They are thicker, yes - but the plastic quality has always been kinda cheap and shoddy. When new the plastic is super clear and looks to be high quality, but it's not - it's very brittle and snaps easily. Clip a corner like you would with a PSA slab and make sure both edges of the slab are exposed. BVG is different from the others in that their slab works more like a shoebox. The top lid fits over the bottom larger part like a box closure. Once you snip the sides and figure this out, it's fairly easy to work a tool around this setup and sometimes even lift the top of the "box" off...