Increase in low grade cards being graded

[Leon]

Great points made. I still like raw cards but they are getting harder to find. And some, I just don't want to slab as they came from original collections. I have 0 concern of alterations on these (shown many times before). Now, if I go to sell them, I would be stupid not to have them slabbed for monetary reasons.

As to the question of low grade cards being slabbed, the answers in this thread are all good answers.

Does anyone else like seeing cards NOT through plastic? (almost all of my higher end items are slabbed).

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Originally Posted by Leon

Does anyone else like seeing cards NOT through plastic? (almost all of my higher end items are slabbed).

For your cards and my autographs, I like to know there is nothing impeding me from touching the physical item. Now, when value dictates, I will be protecting items with some sort of plastic, but the piece will always be removable.

Besides being bulky, clunky, costing money, etc., slabs permanently remove the tactile and olfactory aspects of collecting. That's two of the three senses that we regularly employ with our collectibles. I'm sure some folks have tasted their cards , and only pray that, aside from 1989 Topps Talking Baseball and the like, nobody has heard their cards speak to them. (And it's safe to admit that you could pass a blindfold test to discern a '89 UD from a 52T from a T206 based purely on scent.)

[Brian]

I don't mind having cards slabbed, for the preservation value that ensures.

But I draw the line at photos. I cannot, for the life of me, understand the new phenomenon of entombing photos in thick plastic sarcophagi just for the purposes of authentication and adding value. I stay away from buying any such photos...

[JustinD]

I think the growth in low grade slabs is due to the massive jump in pandemic collectors that have little skill in vintage. Most couldn’t tell the difference between a 1953 Topps and a 1962. They want the hof player, but have zero knowledge of what they are getting.

It makes sense that the entry level cards are graded to fill this demand in unknowing collectors coming in a the ground floor. I say enjoy it because it means they are building the next vintage collectors a little at a time.

[Leon]

Anything that gets people collecting vintage is a good thing.

I always thought it was about ROI on getting things slabbed, but the safety aspect is just as important. How many times have we fumbled a slab and been happy it was in plastic?
And then there's the registry, but I don't know if lower end has anything to do with that.

And a raw card, lower grade, if not lower end.

Originally Posted by JustinD

I think the growth in low grade slabs is due to the massive jump in pandemic collectors that have little skill in vintage. Most couldn’t tell the difference between a 1953 Topps and a 1962. They want the hof player, but have zero knowledge of what they are getting.

It makes sense that the entry level cards are graded to fill this demand in unknowing collectors coming in a the ground floor. I say enjoy it because it means they are building the next vintage collectors a little at a time.