Profesional Grading, Is it Worth it?
Companies such as Beckett and Collectors Universe provide professional grading services; that is, an independent organization that will, for a fee, grade your card (either through a hobby shop, by mail or at a show) and provide a rating of your card. Most grading services are identified by a 3 or 4 letter anagram (Beckett Grading Services - BGS, Professional Sportscard Authenticators - PSA) and most have a rating scale of 10 (some have a scale of 100) ranging from Poor (1) to Gem-Mint or Pristine (10).
In addition, these companies add additional codes to indicate other defects, such as "OC" for off-center cards. Most grading companies issue "population reports", which tell collectors how many of a given card have been given a certain grade, so a collector can see how scarce a card is in a given grade.
Cards that have professional grades of 9 or higher are often listed at prices that are substantial higher than the "Mint" grade listed in a sports card price guide. For a card graded 10, the price can sometimes be 10 or 20 times the price of the "Mint" grade. Due to the extreme prices differences between grade, sellers often will have a card graded by two grading services, allowing them to sell the card at whichever grade their think will be more profitable.
Whether or not you should have your cards professionally graded depends on the reason you are collecting. If you are collecting for the enjoyment of it, you probably don't need professionally graded cards (although they would help establish a reliable price if you were looking to insure your cards.) Regardless, cards below $20 do not generally need to be professionally graded, because the return on their sale is too low to make the investment in grading worthwhile.
If you are selling cards in the $20 and up range and look at collecting as a speculative investment (in which case it really is just speculating, not collecting), then you should take a look at professional grading. If you want to sell in online auctions, professional grading is essential as a means of relating condition information about your cards to potential sellers. If you have a professionally graded card, you can, with relative accuracy, estimate the price a given card might fetch in the marketplace and sell at the appropriate time.
Next >> Buy, Price and Sell
Companies such as Beckett and Collectors Universe provide professional grading services; that is, an independent organization that will, for a fee, grade your card (either through a hobby shop, by mail or at a show) and provide a rating of your card. Most grading services are identified by a 3 or 4 letter anagram (Beckett Grading Services - BGS, Professional Sportscard Authenticators - PSA) and most have a rating scale of 10 (some have a scale of 100) ranging from Poor (1) to Gem-Mint or Pristine (10).
In addition, these companies add additional codes to indicate other defects, such as "OC" for off-center cards. Most grading companies issue "population reports", which tell collectors how many of a given card have been given a certain grade, so a collector can see how scarce a card is in a given grade.
Cards that have professional grades of 9 or higher are often listed at prices that are substantial higher than the "Mint" grade listed in a sports card price guide. For a card graded 10, the price can sometimes be 10 or 20 times the price of the "Mint" grade. Due to the extreme prices differences between grade, sellers often will have a card graded by two grading services, allowing them to sell the card at whichever grade their think will be more profitable.
Whether or not you should have your cards professionally graded depends on the reason you are collecting. If you are collecting for the enjoyment of it, you probably don't need professionally graded cards (although they would help establish a reliable price if you were looking to insure your cards.) Regardless, cards below $20 do not generally need to be professionally graded, because the return on their sale is too low to make the investment in grading worthwhile.
If you are selling cards in the $20 and up range and look at collecting as a speculative investment (in which case it really is just speculating, not collecting), then you should take a look at professional grading. If you want to sell in online auctions, professional grading is essential as a means of relating condition information about your cards to potential sellers. If you have a professionally graded card, you can, with relative accuracy, estimate the price a given card might fetch in the marketplace and sell at the appropriate time.
Next >> Buy, Price and Sell
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