Great topic and lesson to all people in the hobby!! Most collectors do not have unlimited resources. Through this idea we can still get nice cards of the more popular players without breaking the bank!! This concept will make your card budget go further!!
Great job with an insightful video! In defense of grading companies in general, their job is to assign a technical grade, where “eye appeal” has ZERO consideration. It is indeed the job of the COLLECTOR to decide which cards they like for the value. I agree with your eye and your sensibilities!
For me, that's where the problems start coming in: why grade a card if you aren't taking in all considerations of eye appeal? Isnt that part of the process of assigning a numerical grade? Shouldn't they at least add an above-average eye-appeal sticker to their labels? Alot of people would probably argue against it, due to increased value, but I couldn't tell you how many times I tried buying a low grade I thought appeared nice, just to receive it with blemishes/creases I didn't see in photos. That sticker would at least ensure people were getting a nice copy for the grade. If they can't take all aspects of the card into consideration, then why bother? If they're going to do a poor job, I think they should just start authenticating them without any numerical grades. I've seen even faded cards with high grades. Explain to me how that makes sense? Shouldn't fading devalue and lower the grade? None of it makes any sense to me.
I think that's a fair point. It's not always the best eye appeal that gets the best grade. But, I also think my main point is that the focus shouldn't be on the grade, for that exact reason...that is unless someone's collecting preference is to collect the card that looks closest to how the manufacturer originally intended it to look. I just think we've gotten obsessed with grades.
Always buy the card, not the grade. There are some beautiful lower grade cards. You can save so much by looking. Great video. Please do another one like this in the future. I really enjoyed it.
I picked your card 8 out of 10 examples. The major differences I noticed overall is that your cards were not quite as vibrant in color but they were better centered & presented better. I have a T206 Piedmont 350 in a well-centered & cornered PSA 1 which I bought 8 months ago & have yet to see any visible flaw on it. I don’t get it either
Understand that… at Local Card show I picked up a second year Yaz in a 2 for $40… looked nice… fills the spot to go along with my 1960 rookie which is a 1
Love your shows. I totally agree with you on this. Buy the card not the grade. That's what I love about vintage, most people don't criticize for low grade cards. I try to buy mid 2s-mid 3s and I'm totally happy with my grades and the looks of the cards. These are seventy year plus cards and it's just a miracle they are still here in my eyes.
Great video! As someone new to vintage this is certainly a strategy to incorporate. I don't find myself too concerned with the grade if the card looks good.
I have watched your videos for almost a year. This one was your best yet. You do what you say. Love youe opening words. You do buy the card & not the grade. I think collectors tend to follow this thinking. Investors are always concerned with value over eye appeal. I have collected most of my life, almost 74 now. Never did resale value enter the picture. Twice I bought graded cards ,a 1 & a 2 1/2 , cracked em both out. They are beauties & stand up without a number. Collectors , trust your eyes & not some stranger to tell you what to like.
Thanks for the kind words. I really appreciate it. We all live and learn during the collecting journey. We all make good and bad decisions, and that's all part of it. It's like life.
Thanks for another useful video. I tend towards lower grade cards myself due to affordability. I've been pleasantly surprised with some of the cards I've gotten. I've sometimes ended with higher grades (5 and 6) because of a good deal. I can tell by your picks that centering is important to you. Some of the higher grades had worse centering than yours. I consistently picked yours because of centering. Great video.
For every card where the grade was at least 2 different I could tell which one was going to have the higher technical grade. But of course > technical grade does not = > eye appeal. another issue with many of the other people’s cards was poor lighting for the photos. Makes it tougher to judge superior eye appeal without equal lighting. But for the most part this is the take for all pure collectors who have collections that will be sold by their heirs. Don’t know that this will change anyone with the “investor” mindset.
Really good video! Feels good having someone share the same opinion in regards to buying. I target a card, look for the most affordable low grade presentable card I can find. Basically, the best bang for your buck. With a budget, it stretches my card buying further. If that makes sense.
Graig Love the video as usual, although the funniest part was when you were imitating the arguments that people would have 😜 mostly funny because it was true
You've helped me realize that some lower grade vintage cards can have better centering, registration, and color than others that are graded higher. If someone isn't picky about corner sharpness or wax on the back, then they can save a lot of money and end up with a very visually appealing card.
Really enjoyed your presentation, Graig. As always, you deliver a clear and concise analysis. Since re-entering the hobby nine months ago, I have only purchased ungraded cards and trusted my own eyes (old as they may be). I have submitted many to SGC (for the usual reasons as a collector, not investor) and my batting average has been pretty solid thus far. Thanks for taking the time to share your spot-on perspective! Well done. Take care, Rob.
Hi Graig, Thank you for the wonderful discussion about lower graded cards. I collect cards from PSA 3-4 almost exclusively. I sometimes splurge and get a PSA OR SGC 5! My collection is very nice but very cost effective. I have some cards that are better looking at lower grades than some I see that are graded higher. Have a great weekend and keep collecting. Peter
I was 10 for 10. You're absolutely right. Your card were better in every case. For me, centering is the the most important factor -ceteris paribus (all things being equal). Your cards were all better centered. For me the Mantle was the closest to being even, but yours was better. The surface of the card looked newer and brighter. Your Bart Starr looked 2 grades better than that the 8.5 Bart Starr. So that would make yours a 10.5. lol.
Another informative and entertaining video .I mainly collect vintage sets many of which are fully graded .For each set I have a minimum grade .I do not want a set with a lot of different grades. Fully graded complete sets are valued by the grade not by each individual card. I will buy higher grades of the key cards but not a lower grade regardless of the individual card's appearance .(PSA set registry. Back in the day SGC also had a set registry but dropped it).That said I agree 100% that if you are collecting individual cards buy the card not the grade as you advise. Keep up the great videos.
I totally agree with the minimum grade concept, and somewhat do that myself. But ultimately, the look of the card is what makes me decide whether to buy or sell.
I dont know what made me think of this but I remember reading a book by Tim Kurkjain (My Hero LOL), who I think is the greatest story teller in baseball, about Graig Nettles Your hero LOL. Apparently when he was coaching the Yankees, they had a rule that no one would throw anything that would require the field coaches to pick up after them out of respect. Well I guess Mel Hall didn't ever like to play by the rules so he slammed his helmet after a strikeout, Graig Nettles picked it up down the 1st base line and carried it back to the dugout, where he proceeded to smash it into 1,000 pieces, handing it back to Hall and saying, "Here I picked up your helmet for you."
I agree! Great video! I do feel corners is a big differentiator for a lot of these. But I agree, centering and color, should be held to a higher standard!
Great video Graig! I 100% agree with you, eye appeal is so important. The comparisons that you did were fantastic! I was checking some of the serial numbers to see if I was the hump who bought the higher graded cards (luckily, I wasn't)😂... Thanks for making this video, its such an important concept when it comes to collecting!
Great job as usual on this one Graig. Easy to see immediately which card is yours however, since you own it every one of your cards is brighter in color, the others are from a screenshot. Agreed on 8 of yours, some of thise are just incredible for the grade, congrats on those finds.Imo, I would take the higher graded Feller and Spahn. The killer on the Feller is the bottom front left corner which is pretty narly to me as well as the paper loss on the back. The Spahn cards are pretty similar but the $40 difference in regard to the grades makes me lean to the higher graded card here as well.
Seems like from all of the examples you showed Graig why the darker imaged cards are a grade or more higher than the lighter imaged versions? Never knew about the 1c and 5c Bowman packs and that the 1c card would have the wax back. Thanks for sharing everything from this video
Yep side by side not knowing the grades I probably would have taken yours 9/10 with the exception of Spahn. Good info. This is pretty much how I build my collection, best bang for my buck with eye appeal. Although I have some total beaters that were too cheap to pass up.
I prefer your Willie Mays 5 to the Willie Mays 8 --- the colors pop on the 5 :) I also prefer the Otto Graham 4 (yours) to the 6. Also prefer your Doby.
Great video! The 1958 Mays AS, 1958 Bart Starr, and 1952 Otto Graham were the best examples of the bunch IMO. Your examples were better than the higher graded cards! Congrats!
Great video. Almost every graded card I’ve purchased over the last few years is bellow a SGC 5. The higher graded examples are cards I submitted myself. I have a lot of cool cads which out breaking the bank.
At the end of the day when it comes to vintage, I just want the card. The biggest flaw that draws me away is when the card has snowing effect or just beat up. I buy the card over the grade. I’d rather have a low eye appealing card over an OC overgraded opinionated high grade. But to each its own.
Saturday night midlife!! This is such a useful demonstration, Graig, and a great testament to your decision making as a collector. And BTW - this is a genuinely additive kind of flexing! Eat your heart out, Hans and Franz!
Great video! I 100% agree with your points here, and practice similar things in my collecting. I also like what you said about the importance of just having the card. I have some pretty rough SGC 1s of rarer cards, but guess what? I have the card and that brings me enjoyment!
That’s been my main PC focus for a few years. I’ve got some award winning PSA registry sets that are amazing but I just love my low grade rookie collection that tries to tie in the vintage to modern. It’s easy to find low grade vintage but a real challenge to find more modern in low grade. It’s also exciting to pick off the low grades that look so much better. People often claim the card is under graded but it’s not necessarily the case. A card with all 4 sub grades will get an overall 4. A card with one 3 subgrade and all 10 other subgrade os also an over all 4. My first choice would be to have the sub grades on the label to see those variations. Just makes me feel Like I’ve won! 🤪 Experienced collectors won’t pay the same for a centered 5 as they would off centered. When you try to associate he averages, they’re limping in all the sales of all the different factors collectors do and don’t pay more for. I’ll pay more for a card with better eye appeal in the same condition.
u have some great examples of lower graded cards having much better eye appeal them some higher graded cards…. eye apeal means alot…. but yeah the grade still sometimes commands the price..
I was half and half when choosing, however with the internet nowadays if I find an affordable card in a lower grade I look for others in that same grade and pick others in the same grade. However any card post 1986 has to be a 10. Pre 86' grade doesn't matter to me. With vintage I'm more about the color than centering so if centering is a little off I'm cool with that.
Before grading came around I bought what was available which was raw. As much as I studied the pictures in beckett on corners and other aspects I usually went with what appealed to me. When grading carme around I depended more on the grade because it was not clear to me how each card got the grade it got especially on high graded cards.. With experience and looking at tons of graded cards it came more clear and I depended more on my own eyes but I will admit I have always looked at the grade and the higher to me the better. You have broken that for sure and these days you are right they are grading so hard a low number means nothing. My last pickup of my 62 Topps Lou Brock Rookie at a SGC 5 is as nice and maybe better than my 7s and 8s and of course I paid a much lower price. Thanks for opening my eyes.
Low grade is my kind of grade too! I just saw on ebay that a 1962 Topps Ernie Banks in PSA 9 sold for $8,800, while a PSA 8 sold for $523! Both cards were sold by the same seller and on the same day 😵
Awesome stuff. I'm genuinely not trying to convince anyone to think like me, I'm just sharing how I collect and why. If others change their habits, that's cool. If not, that's cool too.
I like that you used both examples from PSA and SGC. Some of your lower grades do, appear to be better or just as good as some of the higher grades ones. Christy Matthewson, is most likely scarcity. That card, is over 100 years old, but most of the other examples I do think it, really is just over paying for the grade, itself.
Awesome topic and examples. Also agree to buy the card not the grade. However, grader notes (supposedly PSA is adding this at some point) would change how I view a potential purchase to rule out damaged cards at my threshold level. I think we all have some OCD. If a grader with their tools discovered a “well hidden splitting corner” or “well covered, but deep indent” etc etc… I’d never be able to buy certain lower graded cards depending on the finding.
Buy the card not the grade I think, is good advice and something a lot of people say, but not necessarily do. Yes. I would say it, is a combination of ego, for some, and insecurity not really being a good judge of condition and trusting instincts, when it comes to saying, yeah, I can totally see this card, which was assigned a 4...looks just as good or better than a 6 or whatever.. going back again to ego and or insecurity.. it's hard to get there. I don't know if they are right or wrong, but I get it. The thing to keep in mind though, as you mentioned too, is it is your collection, so yeah you got to like it, when comes to reselling however, there's probably a perception, and might be some truth to this, that there will be more eyes and attention on, higher grades. Which could be one of the reason and possibily others as well sells some of the higher graders, the 6's and 7's instead of the 3's and 4's. I don't know. It's late. Haven't been sleeping well lately, hope you understand what am saying. Great video.
What the grades your showing say to me is that the graders lean towards Sharpe corners...I prefer Sharpe corners but, the lower grades look very similar...
I enjoy your videos and agree with most of what you’re saying..the only thing that is a deterrent is the length of your vids has gotten longer ..enjoyed them much more when you were more succinct in your opinions and observations.
Why not just find some reputable sellers you can trust and buy cards raw? All this discussion about grading - what grade did I get, or is grading a scam? If you're buying a Ruth or something like that, I can understand wanting a little more verification in this day and age. But overall, It seems to me that grading has become too central to most collectors. I sometimes think one can almost look too closely at a card. When you put cards in a simple top loader and just look at them in the context of others, they just become cards again - which is everything! Sharp corners and centering are WAY overrated. Although, if a card is way off-center, yes, that's a different story. A wrinkle in the "right" spot can even add character to the card. Your lower grade cards are much nicer than the higher grades you showed, although the Feller and Mathewson were tough choices. The other Doby was also nice. If you take that card, as well as the other Warren Spahn, and put those in top loaders and look at them in the context of other '50 and '51 Bowman cards, they are everything that a card should be.
I think that's a fair point. If you have reputable sellers, that would work, if they are common cards. But for some of these cards with very few copies in existence, that's easier said than done.
Your Feller did have a crease through the Cleveland, but the registration was much better. That Perry and Doby blow my mind. The registration on both of the others were awful! You, like me, are obviously a centering first guy, so I got them all right.
I think this video is all the proof anyone needs to convince themselves that grading is a scam. Ive said this before, and I'll say it again: The simple fact that any lower grade looks as nice or nicer than any higher grade is very concerning. That fact alone should concern anyone in the hobby, because it simply undermines the entire purpose of grading. However, it does make perfect buying opportunities for many people and gives them a chance to take advantage of the absurd grading standards. The only reason the higher grades sell for more, is because the hobby has been monopolized and manipulated by these grading companies. When people learn about grading, they are taught that the "higher" the grade, the better. They are told that higher grades have lower pop counts, so they're rarer and more valuable. This simply isn't true, though, because grading companies cannot control true population of a card...only card manufacturers can do that. Its also important to note that in alot of cases, lower grades have lower pop counts. For example, that 1958 Mays all-star has an extremely low pop count in a PSA 1 and PSA 1.5!! Even more rare is there has only been ONE graded authentic copy, which, if we are studying pop counts, should rival any high grade in existence, right? If population count truly matters, then why aren't these lower grades with lower pop counts more desirable and valuable? Looking at it from the lower end of the spectrum from this perspective, do you see how none of this makes any sense? It's simply manipulated with artificial scarcity that doesn't even make any sense when you look at the numbers.
I totally respect this point of view and you're not alone in that thought process. A lot of people believe grading is a scam. To me, grading is not so much a scam as it is a range. When I see a 5 grade, that means 4-6 to me. When I see a 3, it means 2-4. If someone takes it as the law, then that's where it gets tough.
What draws you to seem to collect more vintage. We’re about the same age and I prefer to collect players I remember seeing play. But hey, collect what you like.
I haven't been back to this hobby that long at all. It's obvious the grading scene is a train wreck. I absolutely refuse to be a part of it. I will buy a graded card on occasion, but my hobby doesn't need it.
Viewer survey: If you had one very valuable card and you had to sell it in order to pay your kids college tuition. You get one shot, say you have a 52 Mantle PSA 8. You have to choose. Where would you sell it?? Goldin Hunt Heritage Ebay REA Other
Tough question. I think the most eyeballs may be on ebay, but the most marketing would be on another. I don't know if I have a good opinion on that one.
@@MidLifeCards I understand that for BIG cards where someone is dropping big money. Or even super high demand players like Mantles. However, I personally feel like the card altering and counterfeiting paranoia is laughably overblown. The concept that there are all these shops out there modifying or counterfeiting large volumes of vintage hall of famer cards is just not true. Plus the grading companies (PSA especially) have proven repeatedly that they miss altered cards. My view is 1) it’s in the grading industries benefit to continue to help sell the “so many of these cards are altered” agenda 2) many collectors love to convince themselves they are all about the card but really that little number means just as much to them so they can understand the current value or compare there collections to others. There’s nothing wrong with this, I just wish more people would be real and stop saying “buy the card” and they turn around and say “but I only buy graded” cards.
I dunno about graded cards cuz its subject to one person opinion on what the card grade is. Just cuz one person at psa says the card is a 5 doesn't mean it's a 5. For all we know, the card could be a 4 or a 6. And it shouldn't matter who grades the card, the grade the card gets shouldn't change if it's in the same condition if u send it to psa or sgc or whoever. Just cuz one grading company has different ways to determine a grade that grade should always be the same. For example: 2+2 is always gonna equal 4. No matter who is doing the math 2+2=4. It doesn't change. Same way with grading cards. Unless for some reason the card condition changed like there's a new crease or a ding corner when there wasn't one before then and only then should the grade be different. People pay so much money when buying graded cards when that might not be the true grade of that card. If u sent that card to 5 different grading company and it came back the same grade then I can say that card is a 5.
I agree with you. I think that's part of my point to this video. Grades are one opinion, not the law. So, I focus on cards that I like the looks of, not that some grader preferred.
@@MidLifeCards Given the way the younger generation views grading, I don't see that happening! Even you have more graded cards sitting on your shelf than I have altogether!!!!
I will NEVER buy most PSA cards period and especially those in the super old 80 million or 90 million series. Every single one of those series I've ever seen are massively over-graded and I'd bet my entire collection that those numbers were specifically reserved for insider/preferred partner grading.
You ask "Is that card really worth 3 times mine?" The answer is yes, because people are paying 3 times for it. It may not be to you, but it is to the marketplace.
Yours was better in every case even the one you didn't think so on. Your picture was more vibrant and centered better in every case. You bought the card not the grade.
Hey Graig, another great video. I actually have some cards I'd like to send you if you have a way of getting me your address. I'm not on any social media other than facebook so if you know of a way to get my your address I'd appraciate it. Thanks Ed
