How much influence does the grade of a card have in your purchase?

[Matt]

call for clarification - are you asking the importance of the actual condition of the card or the importance of the grade assigned by a TPG? (what? they're not the same?)

[Doug]

Originally Posted by Matt

call for clarification - are you asking the importance of the actual condition of the card or the importance of the grade assigned by a TPG? (what? they're not the same?)

Nice one! I meant the actual condition of the card, but either one will work. I forgot to add option 5 "I only buy the card based on the number on the slab no matter the appearance of the actual card itself".

[Leon]

First of all, very nice poll indeed.

One other option could have been "I buy strictly on eye appeal". I bet that would have been a very popular option and is the way I collect.....forget the number on the slab. I will go back to what Corey, Jay M (I think) and many others want...It would be nice to have a service that only states if something is unaltered or not, without a grade given. That is really all I care about. I better go ahead and say ALL collecting is good and if you like to collect by the number on the slab then that is absolutely spectacular, if that is what makes you happy. It's all good...

[Doug]

Originally Posted by Leon

First of all, very nice poll indeed.

One other option could have been "I buy strictly on eye appeal".

I was basically assuming that everyone takes the eye appeal of the card into account when they buy it, but we know what they say about one who assumes...

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Doug

I was basically assuming that everyone takes the eye appeal of the card into account when they buy it, but we know what they say about one who assumes...

Of course this is what we do but I bet if you talk to those guys that always say "the pop is this or the pop is that" (which always makes me laugh) they might be different. Maybe an 8 looks better than a 9 but they need the 9 to be higher on the registry?

[Doug]

Originally Posted by Leon

Of course this is what we do but I bet if you talk to those guys that always say "the pop is this or the pop is that" (which always makes me laugh) they might be different. Maybe an 8 looks better than a 9 but they need the 9 to be higher on the registry?

I actually tried to take that into consideration. I was trying to eliminate the rarity/low pop variable with the "When you are in the market for a fairly common card that is available in a wide variety of grades" statement. If I did leave anything out that gets a good vintage card based discussion going is a plus in my book.

[vintagebaseball]

I enjoy the history of the player and the actual card more then I care about the grade. As long as I can tell what the card is and can see some detail I am happy with the card.

[ebrehm]

Card condition is important to me and I am willing to pay for it, and I do try to buy the card and not the holder, but I shy away from the very highest TPG grades because of the enormous price premiums attached. For example I have NM-MT 8 '33 Goudeys but don't buy Mint 9's, and I have Mint 9 Mickey Mantle cards but don't buy Gem 10's. Where one draws that cost/benefit line is of course arbitrary but that's where it comes out for me.

I do have some sets on the PSA registry, but I'd rather have an 8 that looks better than a 9, even though it earns fewer points. I put the attractiveness of the cards first, and let the ranking fall where it may. If someone else is more concerned about their ranking, that's fine too.

[Matt]

Originally Posted by Leon

First of all, very nice poll indeed.

One other option could have been "I buy strictly on eye appeal". I bet that would have been a very popular option and is the way I collect.....forget the number on the slab. I will go back to what Corey, Jay M (I think) and many others want...It would be nice to have a service that only states if something is unaltered or not, without a grade given. That is really all I care about. I better go ahead and say ALL collecting is good and if you like to collect by the number on the slab then that is absolutely spectacular, if that is what makes you happy. It's all good...

Leon - We've spoken about this previously; I'd like that grading system as well, with one, internet friendly modification. I would want the objective flaws of the card listed. I.e., rounded corners, horizontal crease. That way, as a buyer, I know I'm seeing everything in the scan that the card is. I don't need someone else to tell me how that horizontal crease should effect my overall evaluation of the card, but I do need to know the crease is there.

[Cat]

If I need the card, I don't care much about grade. If it is higher grade I'll pay more -- not because I want to but because I have to.

[Wesley]

Same here. I don't avoid the high grade cards and realize when there is a premium associated with the higher grades. But some of the cards that we colelct just don't exist in high grades. For the most part, I value rarity, subject matter, and aesthetics more than the technical grade.

[Al C.risafulli]

None of the options apply to me.

For most of what I collect, I try and pick up the card with the nicest eye appeal as possible. Although I prefer to collect cards and have them graded by SGC, I generally don't care what the number is, only that it's graded accurately. I try and avoid certain types of flaws, like ink and pinholes. Usually if the grade is too high I can't afford the card. And I avoid purchasing certain graded cards when they're in certain grading companies' slabs, because I don't trust the grade.

There are two sets I collect where the above does not apply.

For 1938 Goudey I collect the highest graded examples I can afford, provided that the card is graded accurately and has the right eye appeal in terms of centering and toning. I believe that I've built a near-complete '38 Goudey set that rivals anything in the hobby, with grades generally ranging between 6 and 8, with a few copies slightly lower and a few slightly higher. In that set, condition is vitally important to me, and it's why it's taken me something like four years to get where I'm at - and I still need 6 cards and would like to upgrade two more. I should also note that I have occasionally replaced a high-grade '38 Goudey with a nicer-looking example in a lower grade. For instance, I replaced a Charlie Gehringer in 8 with a 7 that had much less toning and better centering, but slightly weaker corners. Both cards were graded accurately but the 7 fit my set better.



For Henry Johnson Confectioners, I collect whatever example I can find, with a goal of completing the set. Condition is not important to me at all. All I care about is that I can see the front and the back of the card, and in the case of my Rogers Hornsby and Tris Speaker, I can barely see the fronts. The cards are simply too scarce for me to worry about condition when I don't have any idea of how many surviving copies there are of each card. It has taken me nearly three years to obtain 50 cards and there's no telling how many cards it will take to get the set complete. Once I acquire a card I cross it off my list, and make no attempt to upgrade.

-Al

[iwantitiwinit]

For me it depends on whether I am putting together a specific set or just buying a card I like or buying a card for investment purposes. For specific sets I have minimums and maximums t206 psa 4 or 5, 1953 topps psa 6,7 and the occasional 8, 1967 topps minimum psa8, any card for investment has to be at least a 7 if pre 1948 and an 8 if 1948 or later, if i am just buying a single card i just want to have as a permanent addition to my collection i would buy any card in any grade or even an ungraded card.