BY MARK HALPERN
When baseball cards were introduced, there were no grading services to determine how good a card was. Let’s face it most cards that came out of packs (because of the way kids ripped them) would have been hard to problem see a mint 9 or higher. Cards made back then were flimsy, if they got a drop of water it would seep through and the way most kids kept cards, whether wrapped in rubber bands cards back then didn’t have much of a shot. However, today if you are lucky to still have some of your treasures from then, then they are needed to be graded.
What does Grading in the Sport Card Business mean? Well, simple answer: it’s like getting a grade on a test instead of a letter grade. It’s a number from 1-10, the company you chose looks for 4 distinctive characteristics to determine a grade. The company puts the card literally under the microscope checking the surface for any scratches or print lines, the corners are the one of the toughest to get perfect cause they deduct for the slightest ding, they way the card is printed, meaning is perfectly centered or is 80/20, 70/30 (which is most common) or God forbid the dreadful 60/40. Lastly are the edges around the card itself. Older cards have a very rough time getting a fair grade because just removing them from the pack’s edges gets scuffed. With the print stock (meaning thicker and better quality of paper) edges usually are the easiest to determine. So, if you grade a card and get a 10 that’s the best it can get (like getting an A+) and then down from there and ending with a 1 or an F.
The question I get is what is worth grading? I have several reasons on why I choose to grade cards but I reached out to my Cosigner at Top Notch Sports Club a Mr. Mike Romito (who has never been wrong yet on his assessments) and asked him his opinion what he suggests people to consider today when sending cards in to be graded today and he said “With the grading prices the way they are now, I would grade cards that are worth $100+ raw, or if they are vital to your personal collection. “ Over the last 2 years Bulk grading has been slow because the companies don’t staff enough and prioritize the higher paying submissions first. PSA, SGC, BGS all were backing off of processing bulk orders due to the fact they are beyond overwhelmed and again not enough staffers and have told their customers that the usual 25-50 business days can end up taking closer to 6-8 months.
I agree with Mike that yes older cards of bigger players such as Mantle and Aaron from those days yes they are worth grading because those cards most likely carry way over the $100 value but, if you have a common base card that even though right now might see some graded selling higher but, after you wait six months that value has a great chance of dropping due to many factors (injuries and bad play don’t help) and you’re agreeing to pay a min of $60 to wait six months and be told your card is an 8 and now worth less than what you just paid. Before sending your cards into any grading company most Sport Card Graders will offer an inspection before sending the card out. It is beyond worth it and usually costs as little as $10 for a view to give the customer the best knowledge of what they can possibly expect.
I have been grading cards for a very long time even before it was overly popular. I have scaled back better than 80% of what I used to grade because TIME in this market is not something you have a lot of depending on the player and card itself. If you want the best opinion, reach out to the team at www.topnotchsportsclub.com with any questions on grading, I am sure they would be happy to answer about their process.
The Sports Insanity Network 