Are Baseball Cards Destined to Slowly Diminish in Value?

[grundle20]

Bill - I think you're right in many instances. Think about WHY PSA allows cards valued under $100 bucks to be graded for five bucks. I mean, the market for the people buying cards under $100 bucks, how much of a margin is there really for a dealer to buy a raw, get it graded, and *pray* that with some stroke of luck that card comes back a 6 or higher. Any card with a value under $100 dollars, at the $5 grade PLUS insurance and shipping they make you pay, I mean, geez, you just ate up at least 7-9% of the card's value when it's under $100 to begin with!

Clearly, the exceptions are getting rare, desired cards graded. Why? Again, the price of grading those cards are not 7-9% of the value. Heck, grading cards like that could be half a percent or 1% of value, or even LESS. Clearly, having an amazingly valuable card graded for the "high rollers" of the hobby is worth it's weight.

That's my two cents - it's a question of grading as a factor of card value. If those mathematics come to 5% of card price or higher, forget it, you need to sell at a margin that's not worth the time, cost and effort.