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

[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.