October 12, 2025 • 44 mins
Graig has a YouTube channel called MidLife Sports Cards and does a weekly Q & A episode. This episode posted there on 10/8/25. He covers a wide variety of topics this week.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:10):
What's going on, everybody? Happy Wednesday.
Halfway through another week, and Wednesday is Q&A day.
Remember, as always, if you havea question for an upcoming
episode down below in the comments, simply ask your
question. I had one question this week
came out of the vault. What's the vault?
Those are the questions that have been kind of in there for a
(00:33):
while and for whatever reason, Ihaven't gotten to them because I
only had a few questions last week.
So again, don't hesitate if you have a question or a topic that
you'd like me to bring up. It doesn't necessarily have to
be a question. It could be a what do you think
about, you know, which I guess is a question, but kind of just
a, a topic discussion, discussion starter sort of
(00:55):
thing. So again, as always, ask those
questions down below. You know, I had a lot of fun
Monday night. Tony, my boy Southern collector
14 guys channel. Seems like just yesterday he
started his channel one year anniversary.
That was a lot of fun. Thank you for the people who
showed up to check that out for the live.
(01:18):
If you didn't make the live thatI hope that you'll consider
attending or not attending. I hope you'll consider watching
the rerun of that over on his channel again.
Southern Collector 14 a lot going on this week.
Have a fun video, and usually I don't post videos on Thursdays,
but I have a video coming out tomorrow with a special guest.
(01:43):
We're going to be talking about something I think that will be
fun for you to consider. I think a lot of us get in sort
of a routine or even a rut of how we buy cards, how we add
cards to our collection, and we don't consider some of the other
options that are out there. So I have a guest, a special
guest, a recognizable guest. You'll know who he is and that
(02:06):
will be on with me tomorrow. And we're going to look at, we
already recorded. It was a lot of fun.
We are going to be looking at some ways to buy cards that a
lot of people haven't really taken advantage of.
And we're going to look in detail at one of those, one of
those opportunities, one of those options.
So check that out tomorrow. All right.
(02:30):
Now let's go ahead and take a look at our first of five
questions. As always right here.
This first one says, hey, Greg, I have a Rube Marquard T2O6 in
an old Gai graded 3 slab. My question is, do I keep it in
the old slab or do I crack it and send it into PSA or STC?
(02:52):
I'll probably be posting it in your September pickup of the
month. Thanks.
All right, so a Gai slab. What do we make of a Gai slab?
Well, Gai was a grading company with or one of the head graders
from PSA came over, started his own label.
(03:15):
He then started grading. It was a fairly reputable
company. And then there was a scandal
that basically took them down. And the scandal had to do with
trimming. And So what happened was there
were some trimmed cards that were not being marked as
trimmed. They were getting grades and
once that kind of came out, it kind of took him down.
(03:36):
Now, does that mean every card was graded that was graded by
Gai is trimmed? Of course not.
I, I'm sure that most aren't, but having the Gai slab would
lead some people to kind of be alittle, maybe, maybe a little
hesitant to buy a card. Now, that doesn't mean that this
(03:59):
card is trimmed by any means. In fact, on a card as old as
AT2OT2O6, you can kind of tell by the sharpness of the, of the
corners in the edges if it's original or if it's not.
So I guess the, the question comes down to, and, and again,
whenever I give advice, I'm not telling someone else what they
(04:20):
should do. What I'm going to explain is
what I would do if I was in thissort of situation.
If the card was a really expensive card, like thousands
of dollars or over $1000, you kind of need to have it graded.
(04:41):
And the reason you need to have it graded.
For me, and I know that this is a big thing, a lot of people say
you don't need to have cards graded.
The only reason we need cards graded is for authentication
purposes. I kind of disagree.
I think that cards being graded make them more liquid.
They make them easier to sell. They're an easier asset to know
what you have. So someday this card will be
(05:04):
sold, right? Someday.
And whoever is selling it, you want to be able to make that
sale as easy as possible. And having it graded does that.
Now people will also say, well you could just look at a picture
of a card and the thing about a graded card is there are things
you cannot see on a card when you see a 2 dimensional picture
(05:29):
of the card. And what a grading opinion does
is it provides additional information.
So it makes it way easier to sell a card and get its actual
value when you're doing a long distance deal and an eBay deal,
a Facebook posting, somebody bidding through an auction house
(05:51):
when it's ungraded, again, not in person, but you know, through
a long distance through, throughan electronic deal.
It, it provides information which provides Peace of Mind for
the potential buyer and in turn will result in usually more bids
(06:13):
on the card, a higher sale valueof the card.
Sorry this COVID or cold or whatever is lingering.
So if the card, I would say if the card from in in my life, if
the card is over about 3-4 hundred dollars, I'm usually
(06:33):
going to get it graded. And if I had it in a Gai slab, I
would want to move it to APSA orSGC slab.
If the card was under 2 or $300,I would probably just crack it
out and leave it raw. That's what I would probably do
again, 'cause what that does is it hurts when you sell, but if
(06:57):
it's only like a hundred $200 card, it's not a life changing
card. Sorry, I went into a coffee and
fit. I'll probably have to do that
again. But if it's not a life changing
card, if it's not a huge expensive card, then I would say
it's OK to just enjoy it ungraded.
So if I have a car that says $70card, it's in agai slab.
(07:19):
What I'm probably going to do iscrack it out, put it in a semi
rigid and enjoy it that way. If the card is, you know, 3-4
hundred dollar card or more thanI want it to be in a grading
company slab. I want it to be slabbed
personally, and I want it to be in a slab that is going to yield
the most money down the road in the future for whoever sells it.
(07:43):
So for me, I personally still trust SGC the most in regards to
the consistency of the grading, the look of a vintage card, and
again I'm talking vintage cards.This is AT2O6.
This is a pre war card. With pre war cards especially, I
personally prefer SGC and I feelthat PSA is is really good at
(08:10):
grading modern more than SGC andI think SGC at at least
historically in my experience has been vintage cards better.
So what I would do with a pre war card that is like, I mean
I'm guessing this mark card it'sT2O6 and a three.
It's probably like a 506 hundreddollar card is my guess.
(08:33):
So I would want it in a slab. I would, I would, I would send
that card, I would crack that card out and I would send it to
SGC. What I have found in my opinion
is grading companies kind of look down on other grading
companies that they see is are inferior.
(08:53):
So if you sent a Gai slab over to PSAI, just have a feeling
that they would find more faultswith it than the three grade
because it, it, it just seems like, it seems like companies
look down on other companies like, well, if they said it's a
(09:14):
three, well, there's no way we would give it a three.
We're going to give it less thanthat because we know what we're
doing. That's just kind of like the
feeling that I get now. I don't really have any reason
to think that I don't. I, I've not had a lot of
situations where I tried to cross cards.
I will say that a lot of the times I have tried to cross
cards, the cards didn't go up. I've had times that it it went
(09:40):
up a half a point. I've had times where I put my
minimum grade and they wouldn't grade it.
But it it, it feels to me like if I tried to send that in in
the slab to PSA or SGC that it wouldn't get a three.
It would certainly get less and they might assume that it's
(10:05):
trimmed because it's a Gai slab.So again, I'm I'm, I know I'm
being difficult and long winded,but because it has value, I
would want it in a slab. I would break it out of the slab
so that the grader is not seeingwhat another company has done or
(10:26):
what company did it. I would crack it out.
I would send it to SGC and I would get it re slapped.
This one says. I'm kind of in the same
situation. I love the old vintage cards a
lot but a lot of them have become a little too expensive
for me. So I've been looking at early
(10:48):
80s tops and Fleer and donrous cards graded in 10s which I
can't afford. But I know the upside is not as
good as those cards as they are on the old cards, but I do like
those cards and that I'm thinking about the design and
the look. I don't know what I should do.
(11:09):
This is a good question, but I think that I'm going to, I'm
going to probably say what a lotof you anticipate that I'm going
to say. There is not a right way to do
the hobby. I, I really believe that.
I do not believe there's a wrongway to do the hobby.
And I know some people go, Oh yes, there is.
(11:29):
I don't think that there is. The point of the hobby is to be
a a positive in our life, a goodway to Direct Energy and stay
away from negativity and and bring us joy in whatever brings
you joy. Now, if looking at pretty cards
(11:51):
brings you joy, buy pretty cards.
If sparkly cards bring you joy, buy sparkly cards.
If old historic cards bring you joy, buy old historic cards.
It sounds to me like what you'reexplaining is you like cards
from say the 80s and, and you like those cards, but the thing
(12:13):
that's holding you back is the potential upside in value.
So I guess the thing you got to look at is, are, are you asking
the question from an investment point of view or are you asking
the question from a hobby point of view?
If you're asking any anybody anything about from a hobby
point of view, it doesn't matterwhat anybody thinks.
(12:34):
It doesn't matter what I think. It doesn't matter what any other
channel or any friend or any dealer, none of that matters.
The only thing that matters is that you're buying things that
make you happy and I I genuinelybelieve that you should be
buying what makes you happy. Now, if somebody was asking the
(12:56):
question of should I buy 80s cards instead of vintage cards
and 80s cards in 10s because arethey a better investment than
vintage cards, that's a different question.
That is a completely different question.
But I like to think of this channel and myself as a person
(13:17):
who is a collector who enjoys the hobby, who wants to share
the joy of the hobby and not a person who's looking at
potential upside. That said, I do think there are
some cards from the 80s that there is a bit of a nostalgia
kick that has made some of thosecards jump.
(13:41):
There have been some cards that have jumped in value from the
80s over the and 70s over the last few years.
And I think a lot of that is because people who are starting
to get to the point in their life where they have a little
bit more money, a little bit more income, their their kids
are starting to get out of the house.
(14:03):
People like my age in their late40s and early 50s are wanting to
relive their childhood. And So what they're wanting to
do is buy cards from their childhood.
That's what I think a lot of people are doing.
And I think some of those cards have gone up.
Now. There are some cards that are
never really going to go up thatmuch because the, the supply
(14:24):
just is so much greater than thepossible demand.
But then there are some cards like the the, the Billy Ripken F
face card, that card has gone way up over the last couple of
years. Why would that card go way up?
I think it's nostalgic collectors.
(14:44):
I think it's people who are saying, man, that card as a kid
was like, Oh my gosh, everyone wanted that card.
I want to own it now. And so people are going out and
buying it. So that card, because it's not
an infinite supply, even the theKen Griffey Junior Upper deck
over the last year, he's gone way up, He's gone up like 50% in
(15:06):
value over the last year. Because I think again, a lot of
nostalgia people as as people are getting back into the hobby,
they're buying cards from their childhood.
There are some cards like an 89 tops Don Mattingly never really
going to be worth that much 'cause there are just piles and
piles and landfills and landfills full of those cards.
(15:29):
And so because of that, those cards are never going to really
jump. But but the extremely high
demand cards like the Griffey, like the cards that don't have
the crazy, the crazy high supply, but have demand.
(15:49):
They're they're I think they have some potential.
I wouldn't invest in them. I'm not saying, I'm not saying
I'm not saying go invest in 1988wax not saying that.
What I'm saying is the number one determining factor of what
you collect should be what brings you joy.
(16:10):
That should be #1 if you want toalso consider could these cards
go up in value, then I understand that.
And I would say the the highest of iconic cards like the score
Barry Sanders and the 89 upper deck Griffey and the the Bill
(16:30):
Ripken card, believe it or not, I do think that that card will
will go up over the next few years.
Still not a ton, but a little bit.
But again, this isn't an investment channel.
I'm not telling you what you should do with your money.
I'm just saying don't write off those cards because there is a
sense of nostalgia out there. So, but more importantly, I want
(16:51):
to go back to the very first point that you made.
The very first point that you made was vintage cards are
getting too expensive. I disagree with that.
I disagree with that. I do the same video every month.
I have for two years of of 40 cards that sold for under $50.00
in in auctions the previous month.
And, and in those in those cards, there are cards that sell
(17:15):
for 15/20/25 dollars that I think are fantastic cards that
are vintage cards that are from the 50s or the 60s that are
selling each and every month that are not that expensive.
So if you're talking about Mickey Mantle, if you're talking
about Willie Mays and Hank Aaron, Roberto Clemente and
Sandy Kofax or even pre war cards and Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth,
(17:38):
well, yeah, those are too expensive.
But there are some really, really good all time great
players, important players from different franchises that are
important franchises that won championships and all that kind
of stuff. You can get Whitey Ford cards
for cheap. You can get alkaline cards for
cheap. You can get tons of great
players. Roy Campanella cards for cheap,
(18:00):
Duke Snyder cards for cheap, DonDrysdale cards for cheap.
These are great players. These are Hall of farmers on
legendary teams and you can get those cards for 25, thirty, $35
in pretty darn decent condition.So I wouldn't just say, oh,
well, you know, vintage cards are too expensive.
So I'm going to go buy a bunch of 86 tops, you know, Eric Davis
(18:22):
cards. Like, I don't know if I would go
that route. I would buy what you like.
I would buy what you like and, and, and enjoy the hobby.
And if they go up in value, great.
Now if you want to come back andsay as an investment, what
should I do? Should I buy cards from the ages
or should I buy vintage cards? Different question, but from a
(18:45):
hobby perspective. Stop worrying about what
everybody else thinks. Stop worrying about what other
people like. What other people on other
channels are saying is a better buy.
Buy the thing that makes you happy.
That is really the whole point of what we're doing.
This one says. I am attempting to complete a
1958 All Star set in SGC 6 or better.
(19:08):
I choose SGC because I like the way vintage cards looks in a
tuxedo. Now to the point, some of the
lesser known players are hard tofind graded like Sherm Lawler
and Frank Molzoni. Should I buy raw and submit or
just wait for one to come around?
Love your videos as always. I think it is incredible that
(19:33):
you are mentioning a subset thatI I at one point had started
trying to build the 58 tops All Star set baseball.
I I was literally working on that set.
I was like, because if you look at some of the cards from that
set, the Willie Mays, the MickeyMantle, the Stand Mutual,
(19:54):
there's some awesome, awesome cards in the 58 tops baseball
All Star subset, Really cool cards.
And it's really the first year of All Star cards.
That and, and it's a special set.
It's the first stand mutual card.
You know, the Mickey Mantle's a very affordable card 'cause it
was triple printed. Like I, I, I find it really
(20:19):
interesting 'cause I was going to do exactly what you're saying
you're doing. So that is awesome and and I
think that that's a really fun project and an affordable
project and you get a lot of great cards for a lot of great
players. 58 tops baseball All Star set.
Awesome, awesome thought to do that.
(20:42):
Now some of those cards, becausethey're low value cards, you're
not going to find them commonly graded, right?
That I mean, that's what you're saying.
You're saying, well, not a lot of people have some of these
cards in, you know, in grades because why would you grade a
card that might be, you know, like a, a $3 card if when it's
(21:02):
raw, when it's ungraded. So why would somebody send it
in? Now I understand why you want
them to have an, an SCC holders 'cause they look good.
They do look good and I understand why you'd want them
to have them all matching and it'd be super awesome to see
them all laid out together. That would be a super fun
project. Great project.
(21:23):
Have I said that yet that it's agreat project?
I think it's a great project. Those cards you can find in high
grade through, you know, like Greg Morris or something.
Some of these places you can find a high grade of those
lesser known players for pretty darn cheap.
(21:45):
And So what I would do is I wouldn't just sit and wait and
wait and wait for eventually those cards to show up in a high
grade SGC holder. I personally would go out and I
would buy cards that I thought you, I think you said SGC 6 or
(22:06):
better. I would go out and find cards
that I thought would get at least a seven in ungraded form.
And I would say, oh, this is this card's at least a 7.
And then that gives you a marginfor error where if you're off by
a full grade, it still gets the six that you want.
And, and I would go out and I would find cards that I think
have will get sevens have a chance at an 8 ungraded could
(22:31):
probably get those cards for less than 10 bucks in most
cases. And I would send them to SGC
myself. And if for some chance a card
came back as a 5.5 or something,you can hold it until you find
an upgrade if you wanted to actually stick with your goal of
the six or better. And then when you find the six
or the 6 1/2, then you could sell the five and a half and get
(22:54):
most of your money back anyway. And you might even make money on
on the total investment that youhave in the cart.
So I wouldn't wait around for a bunch of people to be grading a
bunch of lesser known players ofthat set.
I would go out and do it myself.So I would be hunting for really
(23:16):
sharp, good looking cards that Ithink are sevens or better.
I'd send them into STC. I'd get them slab myself.
I'd pay the 15 bucks to STC to slab them up.
And when you're done, I think you're going to have an awesome
project. Awesome idea.
This one says never miss a show.Great job.
You mentioned PSA grading standards have gotten tougher.
(23:39):
What about grading consistency with SGC?
Thanks, Joe. So I mean it, it's, it's super
interesting because we always, we're always talking about
grading and a lot of people get,Oh my gosh, here we go about
grading. But grading has become so
ingrained in the hobby. It is an important topic.
It is a topic that needs to be discussed.
(24:02):
It's important to be discussed because a lot of people, most
people that collect care about values.
And if you care about values, then grading has something to do
with that. Now, whether it should be that
way or not, it is a completely different discussion.
But I totally hear what you're saying about the consistency.
Now, first thing I'll say is it's really easy for us to beat
(24:27):
up on the grading companies. It's really easy for us to
complain about the times that our cards get a lower grade than
we think that they should get. It is really easy for us to do
that. And, and what we don't remember
a lot is the card that we sent in that we thought was going to
get a six and it got a 7. Like we don't, we don't sit
there and go, Oh yeah, man, thatcard, I got hooked up on that
(24:50):
card. But what we do remember is the
time that we thought the card was going to get a four and they
only gave it a three that we remember.
And, and it's been, it's been a theme I've talked about a lot
lately. We are always focusing on the
negative. We are constantly and don't, I'm
not trying to say I'm innocent from this.
I am as guilty as anyone. I do it as well.
(25:12):
I don't want to be this way, butI definitely find myself when
something good happens, I'm quick to forget it.
And when something bad happens, I can't forget it.
And, and so grading companies, there are times cards are
overgraded. There are times cards are
(25:32):
undergraded. And I know that we sit there and
go, that's insane. I actually don't think that's
insane. I actually think that when they
say, yeah, you know, you send the card in five times and it
can get a different grade each time, that actually makes sense
to me because it's a human beingwho's doing it.
As long as human beings are doing the grading, there is
(25:56):
going to be a, a, a lack of consistency.
It there just is anytime human beings are involved, there is a
margin for error. And when you are ramping up how
many cards you're grading over aperiod of time, a short period
of time, then you're going to have more newer people, less
experienced people and that margin for error is going to get
(26:18):
bigger. Now, in a perfect world, we
would send in the card 10 times and it would get the same grade
all 10 times. And if we want a computerized
grading system, that's probably what could happen.
But that's not apparently what people want because that's not
(26:38):
what people are. People are not just, you know,
sending in all their cards to tag grading like they're sending
them in to the human graders. And we know that there are
inconsistencies with human graders.
The fact and then the the point and I've made this point to the
problem is if you give my card A7 and it should have gotten a
nine is the difference in value between the seven and the 9 is
(27:00):
just astronomical. And so when you, you know,
messed me over on the grading and you gave it a 7 and it
should have gotten a nine, you cost me thousands and thousands
of dollars. I get that.
I hear that. I agree with that.
I've said that. But the problem is that's not on
the grading company, that's on us.
(27:22):
We the collectors, we the hobbyists, we're the ones who
continue to say, well, if it hasa nine, I'm willing to pay 4
times as much as the one that has A7 on it.
We're the ones that do that. We're the ones that set the
prices. PSA doesn't grade a card and
then say, well, this is what it's worth.
Now, that's not what they do. They just grade the card.
(27:43):
But what we are doing is we say that card has a nine, that card
has a 7. Even though the seven looks
better than the 9, even though the seven looks like the better
card, I'm going to pay way more for the 9 than the seven.
And that's on us. We have to get away from that.
We have to stop doing that. We have to look at the card and
(28:05):
go, I don't care what the greater said, that grader had a
bad day 'cause that card to me is a near mint card.
It's not an X Mint card. So I'm going to go after the
near Mint looking card because it is near Mint.
It's not X-Men, even though the grade says X-Men.
I know it might sound like at times that some of this is all
(28:29):
contradictory and, and to a certain extent it is, but I
think that we have to continue to remind ourselves that grading
is an opinion. It's a third party person's
opinion. That person might be on the 9
1/2 hour of their ten hour shiftand they've been looking at
cards all day and they're hungryand they're ready to go home and
(28:51):
they're missing their kids baseball game and they're
grading our card that the difference between a nine and a
seven is $10,000. We we have to look at how wild
that is. We have to look at that.
And when when people when we arewilling to pay thousands of
(29:14):
dollars more for A10 than a nine, when the 9 might be a
better card, we have to take thepower back.
And Greg, you sound like a broken record.
OK, maybe I'm a broken record, but I'm going to continue to say
that. So the question is, and I
(29:35):
haven't even really addressed the question, but I have, I
mean, the question is, are thereinconsistencies with STC?
Of course, are there consistencyissues with PSA, of course.
But it absolutely seems. And is this anecdotal or is
this, you know, something that Ihave some scientific evidence
(29:57):
on? It's anecdotal, but I have seen
more cards come through PSA thathave been graded more harshly
than I have seen with SGC. If I send a card into SGC, most
of the time the card is going toget pretty darn close to the
(30:18):
grade. I'm rarely going to be blown
away that SGC, Oh my gosh, SGC gave it a three.
I thought I was going to get a 61/2 or A7.
That doesn't happen, but that does happen with PSA and and
video after video. You can watch it just hours and
hours and hours of this on YouTube of people doing PSA
(30:40):
reveals going how is this card A6?
This card to me is a nine. How is this a six in?
Some of it is we're probably notlooking at our cards close
enough when before we send them in.
And part of this is, you know, could be issues with graders and
some of this could be the new technology that's being used.
(31:02):
But of course, there's inconsistencies.
It's human grading it. There are always errors.
There are always errors with anything when humans are
involved. I'm not perfect.
You're not perfect. The persons you know across the
hall from us isn't perfect. So in my humble opinion,
(31:27):
anecdotal is just anecdotal. This is just Greg.
What do you think my opinion is?I have seen many many many more
cards be graded by PSA that I looked at him and said I don't
get the grade then SGC. 95% of the time I see a card that's
(31:51):
been graded by SGC and I go, I, I, I can see it, I get it.
But but there are many more times that that happens with
PSA. Does that mean we should shut
PSA down? Does that mean PSA should go
away? Does that mean we should stop
using PSA? I mean, we got to do you, you
all, We all have to do what we think is best for us.
(32:12):
But I don't think so. Again, I will continue to beat
the dead horse. Grading is an opinion.
The number is assigned to the card by a person who looks at a
rubric and looks at certain qualities about the card.
(32:36):
They go, OK, the corners, is there a touch?
Is there frame, is there bend? Is there significant rounding?
Is there some rounding? And they use an opinion for that
rubric and they go through it step by step, I have no doubt.
And they look at it and they make judgments, I have no doubt.
(32:57):
And some people's judgment of fraying versus rounding versus
significant rounding is going tobe different from person to
person. And it doesn't matter if you
train them all day every day. But we have to also keep in mind
PSA is grading over 1,000,000 cards a month right now.
And five years ago, they weren't.
(33:19):
So they had to come up with graders.
They had to hire people. They had to have people work
more hours. They had to have more hours
being spent on grading cards than they used to.
They had to have. That's the only way it would be
possible to grade more cards. And so either the same number of
people are working longer hours,which is probably going to lead
(33:41):
to some inconsistencies, or they're hiring new people who
have less experience, which is going to lead to some
inconsistencies regardless. I do I have proof that PSA has
been more inconsistent than SGC?No, but does SGC have some
(34:06):
inconsistencies? Of course, of course, 'cause
they're humans. So I don't know how else to say
it, I and I'm not I, I definitely there are
inconsistencies with STC. Definitely there are
inconsistencies with PSA. Definitely there are
(34:26):
inconsistencies with anything ora human being is involved in the
process of judging something. And the way that as collectors
we are spending our money, we are making that result in huge
(34:47):
amounts of dollars lost or addedbased on the number that was an
assigned, which is an opinion bya person who's sitting in a room
at a grading company. When you look at it like that,
we have to really take a deep look at how much value are we
(35:12):
going to continue to put into a grade.
The grade has some value doesn'tdetermine all of the value, even
though right now a lot of peoplein the hobby are making it the
number one factor by a long shoton what the value is based on
(35:34):
And finally, this one says I've been focusing on collecting
sealed baseball product such as cello packs and rack packs with
stars or Hall of Fame rookie cards on top along with factory
sealed and BBCEFASC boxes. I would love to get your opinion
on this subject and if you're interested in this type of
(35:57):
collecting. All right, so I, I think this
is, this is a super fun way to collect what you're suggesting
is a fun way to collect sealed wax, sealed cellos, sealed rack
packs where there are certain players showing on the packs.
(36:18):
Absolutely fun thing to do. Now, is it for me at this
moment, as things stand right now, that is not something that
really gets my juices flowing, but I completely understand why
it would get somebody else's juices flowing.
(36:39):
The longer I have been in the hobby, the more I am looking for
new things to search for. And I've, I've said this many
times, I'll continue to say thismany times that I like to see
things that I don't see every day.
If you're watching a baseball game and they throw a perfect
(37:00):
game, you're like, Oh my gosh, Ijust watched the perfect game.
That never happens. That's intriguing.
That's exciting, right? That's that would be exciting to
see a perfect game. My dad and my brother went to a
A's Yankees game in Oakland couple years ago and they
watched a perfect game. Not a lot of people have done
(37:22):
that. That makes it extra exciting
when you see things that you don't see every day.
That is exciting, That is fun. And and you don't see cello
packs every day or rack wax packs every day or old wax boxes
every day. You just don't see that stuff a
lot. And when you do see cello packs
(37:43):
and rack packs, you don't generally see like one of the
key chase cards on the top. So that makes it unusual and
unusual is interesting. It is, at least it is to me, in
this hobby where there are thousands and thousands of
directions you can go and we getto pick whichever directions we
want to go. It's fun to find a, a niche
(38:08):
somewhere in there that is different, that is unusual.
It's different than what everyone else is doing.
You know, for me, part of the, the excitement about putting
together my pirate card set is Idon't know anybody putting
together a pirate card set. At least I didn't at the time.
That was different. There were cards that were new
(38:29):
to me. It was a set that was new to me.
It was an era of cards that was new to me and that made it
unique, that made it special, that made it interesting.
And so the thing about this hobby is there are some people
who like autographed cards, somepeople who don't, some people
who like old cards, some people like new, some people like shiny
(38:51):
cards, some people don't. Some people don't like
multiplayer cards, other people do.
Some people don't like All Star cards, other people do.
Some people like SGC, some people like PSA, some people
like CGC. There are so many options that
you get to pick your route, you get to decide which lines to
(39:13):
connect in your route, in building your collection.
And I could totally see the excitement of going after wax
'cause you don't see it all the time.
And going after unopened stuff with top cards showing on the
the tops or the bottoms of the pack 'cause you don't see it all
(39:34):
the time 'cause what are the chances of that happening?
Is it for me? No.
But what I do think is somethingthat we all should consider is
don't just look at what is what is Greg doing?
Oh, Greg likes pirate cards. I'm going to like pirate cards.
Oh, Tony Liebric likes autographed cards.
(39:57):
So I'm going to like autographedcards.
What you should do is you shouldgo to a card show and you should
look around. And when you look around.
You should sit there and go. That right there is really cool.
That's what you should buy. And if that right there, which
(40:18):
is really cool, is unopened wax,collect unopened wax.
But just because it's not for medoesn't mean it shouldn't be for
you. These are the sorts of
conversations I love. These are the sorts of topics
that I absolutely love. And, and, and when I started the
(40:41):
channel, nobody was watching. Nobody watched my channel
because nobody knew I existed. And I couldn't wait until people
watched so that we could have this dialogue where you could
ask me questions and I could share my thoughts, where I could
(41:03):
ask you all questions like on Mondays.
And I could share your thoughts.And then I could share my
responses where you all could beadding cards to your collection
and you could be sharing them with me so I could share them
with everyone. The dialogue of the community,
the the Midlife Nation communitythat we have put together here
(41:26):
is what makes this whole thing 10 times more fun.
You can collect unopened wax andI could not, but we could still
coexist in a hobby and have a ton of fun together and totally
respect each other. Some of the channels that I
watch and I get the most excitedwatching and I get the most
(41:47):
excited when I see that they're posting a new video, are people
who collect completely differently than me.
They own stuff I would never ever own.
But it's not about what they collect.
And I'll say this until I'm bluein the face.
I love the hobby. Not because other people for
(42:10):
what they collect, it's for why they collected.
I am interested in hearing what gets people excited and why it
gets them excited. I am not I, you do not have to
collect like me and I do not have to collect like you for us
to be able to come together and have discussions about the hobby
(42:32):
and, and enjoy that time together.
Most of my friends that are in this hobby collect so
differently than me, so differently than me, but we have
a fun time when we're talking cards, even though we do it
differently. So the thing I loved about this
(42:53):
question and why I was happy to include it this this week is
because it's a perfect example of how I could have none in my
collection of what you're describing.
Well, actually, I have a couple that were gifts and you might
have no pirate cards in your collection, even though I have
the whole set. And we could still coexist in
(43:15):
this hobby and we can still havea blast together talking about
the hobby and enjoying it. I just love when people have
things that they're passionate about and sharing why they're
passionate about it. That's the part that I love.
If you have something you want to talk about, if you have a
(43:35):
topic in the hobby that you wantbrought up on an upcoming
episode, a question you wanted to check my opinion on, which I
might agree with you, I might disagree with you.
But that's the beauty. Because if we agreed on
everything, do you know how boring this would be?
If we agreed on everything, thiswould be the most boring thing
of all time. We would all be out collecting
(43:58):
the same thing, but we all show up to card shows and we all have
different eBay searches and we all go to different auction
houses and what you are looking for and what I am looking for
are completely different. That's the fun part.
That's the best part. So share your questions down
(44:20):
below that you want to brought up be brought up on an upcoming
episode. I look forward to those.
Thank you to everybody who askeda question.
Thanks for watching.
What's going on, everybody? Happy Wednesday.
Halfway through another week, and Wednesday is Q&A day.
Remember, as always, if you havea question for an upcoming
episode down below in the comments, simply ask your
question. I had one question this week
came out of the vault. What's the vault?
Those are the questions that have been kind of in there for a
(00:33):
while and for whatever reason, Ihaven't gotten to them because I
only had a few questions last week.
So again, don't hesitate if you have a question or a topic that
you'd like me to bring up. It doesn't necessarily have to
be a question. It could be a what do you think
about, you know, which I guess is a question, but kind of just
a, a topic discussion, discussion starter sort of
(00:55):
thing. So again, as always, ask those
questions down below. You know, I had a lot of fun
Monday night. Tony, my boy Southern collector
14 guys channel. Seems like just yesterday he
started his channel one year anniversary.
That was a lot of fun. Thank you for the people who
showed up to check that out for the live.
(01:18):
If you didn't make the live thatI hope that you'll consider
attending or not attending. I hope you'll consider watching
the rerun of that over on his channel again.
Southern Collector 14 a lot going on this week.
Have a fun video, and usually I don't post videos on Thursdays,
but I have a video coming out tomorrow with a special guest.
(01:43):
We're going to be talking about something I think that will be
fun for you to consider. I think a lot of us get in sort
of a routine or even a rut of how we buy cards, how we add
cards to our collection, and we don't consider some of the other
options that are out there. So I have a guest, a special
guest, a recognizable guest. You'll know who he is and that
(02:06):
will be on with me tomorrow. And we're going to look at, we
already recorded. It was a lot of fun.
We are going to be looking at some ways to buy cards that a
lot of people haven't really taken advantage of.
And we're going to look in detail at one of those, one of
those opportunities, one of those options.
So check that out tomorrow. All right.
(02:30):
Now let's go ahead and take a look at our first of five
questions. As always right here.
This first one says, hey, Greg, I have a Rube Marquard T2O6 in
an old Gai graded 3 slab. My question is, do I keep it in
the old slab or do I crack it and send it into PSA or STC?
(02:52):
I'll probably be posting it in your September pickup of the
month. Thanks.
All right, so a Gai slab. What do we make of a Gai slab?
Well, Gai was a grading company with or one of the head graders
from PSA came over, started his own label.
(03:15):
He then started grading. It was a fairly reputable
company. And then there was a scandal
that basically took them down. And the scandal had to do with
trimming. And So what happened was there
were some trimmed cards that were not being marked as
trimmed. They were getting grades and
once that kind of came out, it kind of took him down.
(03:36):
Now, does that mean every card was graded that was graded by
Gai is trimmed? Of course not.
I, I'm sure that most aren't, but having the Gai slab would
lead some people to kind of be alittle, maybe, maybe a little
hesitant to buy a card. Now, that doesn't mean that this
(03:59):
card is trimmed by any means. In fact, on a card as old as
AT2OT2O6, you can kind of tell by the sharpness of the, of the
corners in the edges if it's original or if it's not.
So I guess the, the question comes down to, and, and again,
whenever I give advice, I'm not telling someone else what they
(04:20):
should do. What I'm going to explain is
what I would do if I was in thissort of situation.
If the card was a really expensive card, like thousands
of dollars or over $1000, you kind of need to have it graded.
(04:41):
And the reason you need to have it graded.
For me, and I know that this is a big thing, a lot of people say
you don't need to have cards graded.
The only reason we need cards graded is for authentication
purposes. I kind of disagree.
I think that cards being graded make them more liquid.
They make them easier to sell. They're an easier asset to know
what you have. So someday this card will be
(05:04):
sold, right? Someday.
And whoever is selling it, you want to be able to make that
sale as easy as possible. And having it graded does that.
Now people will also say, well you could just look at a picture
of a card and the thing about a graded card is there are things
you cannot see on a card when you see a 2 dimensional picture
(05:29):
of the card. And what a grading opinion does
is it provides additional information.
So it makes it way easier to sell a card and get its actual
value when you're doing a long distance deal and an eBay deal,
a Facebook posting, somebody bidding through an auction house
(05:51):
when it's ungraded, again, not in person, but you know, through
a long distance through, throughan electronic deal.
It, it provides information which provides Peace of Mind for
the potential buyer and in turn will result in usually more bids
(06:13):
on the card, a higher sale valueof the card.
Sorry this COVID or cold or whatever is lingering.
So if the card, I would say if the card from in in my life, if
the card is over about 3-4 hundred dollars, I'm usually
(06:33):
going to get it graded. And if I had it in a Gai slab, I
would want to move it to APSA orSGC slab.
If the card was under 2 or $300,I would probably just crack it
out and leave it raw. That's what I would probably do
again, 'cause what that does is it hurts when you sell, but if
(06:57):
it's only like a hundred $200 card, it's not a life changing
card. Sorry, I went into a coffee and
fit. I'll probably have to do that
again. But if it's not a life changing
card, if it's not a huge expensive card, then I would say
it's OK to just enjoy it ungraded.
So if I have a car that says $70card, it's in agai slab.
(07:19):
What I'm probably going to do iscrack it out, put it in a semi
rigid and enjoy it that way. If the card is, you know, 3-4
hundred dollar card or more thanI want it to be in a grading
company slab. I want it to be slabbed
personally, and I want it to be in a slab that is going to yield
the most money down the road in the future for whoever sells it.
(07:43):
So for me, I personally still trust SGC the most in regards to
the consistency of the grading, the look of a vintage card, and
again I'm talking vintage cards.This is AT2O6.
This is a pre war card. With pre war cards especially, I
personally prefer SGC and I feelthat PSA is is really good at
(08:10):
grading modern more than SGC andI think SGC at at least
historically in my experience has been vintage cards better.
So what I would do with a pre war card that is like, I mean
I'm guessing this mark card it'sT2O6 and a three.
It's probably like a 506 hundreddollar card is my guess.
(08:33):
So I would want it in a slab. I would, I would, I would send
that card, I would crack that card out and I would send it to
SGC. What I have found in my opinion
is grading companies kind of look down on other grading
companies that they see is are inferior.
(08:53):
So if you sent a Gai slab over to PSAI, just have a feeling
that they would find more faultswith it than the three grade
because it, it, it just seems like, it seems like companies
look down on other companies like, well, if they said it's a
(09:14):
three, well, there's no way we would give it a three.
We're going to give it less thanthat because we know what we're
doing. That's just kind of like the
feeling that I get now. I don't really have any reason
to think that I don't. I, I've not had a lot of
situations where I tried to cross cards.
I will say that a lot of the times I have tried to cross
cards, the cards didn't go up. I've had times that it it went
(09:40):
up a half a point. I've had times where I put my
minimum grade and they wouldn't grade it.
But it it, it feels to me like if I tried to send that in in
the slab to PSA or SGC that it wouldn't get a three.
It would certainly get less and they might assume that it's
(10:05):
trimmed because it's a Gai slab.So again, I'm I'm, I know I'm
being difficult and long winded,but because it has value, I
would want it in a slab. I would break it out of the slab
so that the grader is not seeingwhat another company has done or
(10:26):
what company did it. I would crack it out.
I would send it to SGC and I would get it re slapped.
This one says. I'm kind of in the same
situation. I love the old vintage cards a
lot but a lot of them have become a little too expensive
for me. So I've been looking at early
(10:48):
80s tops and Fleer and donrous cards graded in 10s which I
can't afford. But I know the upside is not as
good as those cards as they are on the old cards, but I do like
those cards and that I'm thinking about the design and
the look. I don't know what I should do.
(11:09):
This is a good question, but I think that I'm going to, I'm
going to probably say what a lotof you anticipate that I'm going
to say. There is not a right way to do
the hobby. I, I really believe that.
I do not believe there's a wrongway to do the hobby.
And I know some people go, Oh yes, there is.
(11:29):
I don't think that there is. The point of the hobby is to be
a a positive in our life, a goodway to Direct Energy and stay
away from negativity and and bring us joy in whatever brings
you joy. Now, if looking at pretty cards
(11:51):
brings you joy, buy pretty cards.
If sparkly cards bring you joy, buy sparkly cards.
If old historic cards bring you joy, buy old historic cards.
It sounds to me like what you'reexplaining is you like cards
from say the 80s and, and you like those cards, but the thing
(12:13):
that's holding you back is the potential upside in value.
So I guess the thing you got to look at is, are, are you asking
the question from an investment point of view or are you asking
the question from a hobby point of view?
If you're asking any anybody anything about from a hobby
point of view, it doesn't matterwhat anybody thinks.
(12:34):
It doesn't matter what I think. It doesn't matter what any other
channel or any friend or any dealer, none of that matters.
The only thing that matters is that you're buying things that
make you happy and I I genuinelybelieve that you should be
buying what makes you happy. Now, if somebody was asking the
(12:56):
question of should I buy 80s cards instead of vintage cards
and 80s cards in 10s because arethey a better investment than
vintage cards, that's a different question.
That is a completely different question.
But I like to think of this channel and myself as a person
(13:17):
who is a collector who enjoys the hobby, who wants to share
the joy of the hobby and not a person who's looking at
potential upside. That said, I do think there are
some cards from the 80s that there is a bit of a nostalgia
kick that has made some of thosecards jump.
(13:41):
There have been some cards that have jumped in value from the
80s over the and 70s over the last few years.
And I think a lot of that is because people who are starting
to get to the point in their life where they have a little
bit more money, a little bit more income, their their kids
are starting to get out of the house.
(14:03):
People like my age in their late40s and early 50s are wanting to
relive their childhood. And So what they're wanting to
do is buy cards from their childhood.
That's what I think a lot of people are doing.
And I think some of those cards have gone up.
Now. There are some cards that are
never really going to go up thatmuch because the, the supply
(14:24):
just is so much greater than thepossible demand.
But then there are some cards like the the, the Billy Ripken F
face card, that card has gone way up over the last couple of
years. Why would that card go way up?
I think it's nostalgic collectors.
(14:44):
I think it's people who are saying, man, that card as a kid
was like, Oh my gosh, everyone wanted that card.
I want to own it now. And so people are going out and
buying it. So that card, because it's not
an infinite supply, even the theKen Griffey Junior Upper deck
over the last year, he's gone way up, He's gone up like 50% in
(15:06):
value over the last year. Because I think again, a lot of
nostalgia people as as people are getting back into the hobby,
they're buying cards from their childhood.
There are some cards like an 89 tops Don Mattingly never really
going to be worth that much 'cause there are just piles and
piles and landfills and landfills full of those cards.
(15:29):
And so because of that, those cards are never going to really
jump. But but the extremely high
demand cards like the Griffey, like the cards that don't have
the crazy, the crazy high supply, but have demand.
(15:49):
They're they're I think they have some potential.
I wouldn't invest in them. I'm not saying, I'm not saying
I'm not saying go invest in 1988wax not saying that.
What I'm saying is the number one determining factor of what
you collect should be what brings you joy.
(16:10):
That should be #1 if you want toalso consider could these cards
go up in value, then I understand that.
And I would say the the highest of iconic cards like the score
Barry Sanders and the 89 upper deck Griffey and the the Bill
(16:30):
Ripken card, believe it or not, I do think that that card will
will go up over the next few years.
Still not a ton, but a little bit.
But again, this isn't an investment channel.
I'm not telling you what you should do with your money.
I'm just saying don't write off those cards because there is a
sense of nostalgia out there. So, but more importantly, I want
(16:51):
to go back to the very first point that you made.
The very first point that you made was vintage cards are
getting too expensive. I disagree with that.
I disagree with that. I do the same video every month.
I have for two years of of 40 cards that sold for under $50.00
in in auctions the previous month.
And, and in those in those cards, there are cards that sell
(17:15):
for 15/20/25 dollars that I think are fantastic cards that
are vintage cards that are from the 50s or the 60s that are
selling each and every month that are not that expensive.
So if you're talking about Mickey Mantle, if you're talking
about Willie Mays and Hank Aaron, Roberto Clemente and
Sandy Kofax or even pre war cards and Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth,
(17:38):
well, yeah, those are too expensive.
But there are some really, really good all time great
players, important players from different franchises that are
important franchises that won championships and all that kind
of stuff. You can get Whitey Ford cards
for cheap. You can get alkaline cards for
cheap. You can get tons of great
players. Roy Campanella cards for cheap,
(18:00):
Duke Snyder cards for cheap, DonDrysdale cards for cheap.
These are great players. These are Hall of farmers on
legendary teams and you can get those cards for 25, thirty, $35
in pretty darn decent condition.So I wouldn't just say, oh,
well, you know, vintage cards are too expensive.
So I'm going to go buy a bunch of 86 tops, you know, Eric Davis
(18:22):
cards. Like, I don't know if I would go
that route. I would buy what you like.
I would buy what you like and, and, and enjoy the hobby.
And if they go up in value, great.
Now if you want to come back andsay as an investment, what
should I do? Should I buy cards from the ages
or should I buy vintage cards? Different question, but from a
(18:45):
hobby perspective. Stop worrying about what
everybody else thinks. Stop worrying about what other
people like. What other people on other
channels are saying is a better buy.
Buy the thing that makes you happy.
That is really the whole point of what we're doing.
This one says. I am attempting to complete a
1958 All Star set in SGC 6 or better.
(19:08):
I choose SGC because I like the way vintage cards looks in a
tuxedo. Now to the point, some of the
lesser known players are hard tofind graded like Sherm Lawler
and Frank Molzoni. Should I buy raw and submit or
just wait for one to come around?
Love your videos as always. I think it is incredible that
(19:33):
you are mentioning a subset thatI I at one point had started
trying to build the 58 tops All Star set baseball.
I I was literally working on that set.
I was like, because if you look at some of the cards from that
set, the Willie Mays, the MickeyMantle, the Stand Mutual,
(19:54):
there's some awesome, awesome cards in the 58 tops baseball
All Star subset, Really cool cards.
And it's really the first year of All Star cards.
That and, and it's a special set.
It's the first stand mutual card.
You know, the Mickey Mantle's a very affordable card 'cause it
was triple printed. Like I, I, I find it really
(20:19):
interesting 'cause I was going to do exactly what you're saying
you're doing. So that is awesome and and I
think that that's a really fun project and an affordable
project and you get a lot of great cards for a lot of great
players. 58 tops baseball All Star set.
Awesome, awesome thought to do that.
(20:42):
Now some of those cards, becausethey're low value cards, you're
not going to find them commonly graded, right?
That I mean, that's what you're saying.
You're saying, well, not a lot of people have some of these
cards in, you know, in grades because why would you grade a
card that might be, you know, like a, a $3 card if when it's
(21:02):
raw, when it's ungraded. So why would somebody send it
in? Now I understand why you want
them to have an, an SCC holders 'cause they look good.
They do look good and I understand why you'd want them
to have them all matching and it'd be super awesome to see
them all laid out together. That would be a super fun
project. Great project.
(21:23):
Have I said that yet that it's agreat project?
I think it's a great project. Those cards you can find in high
grade through, you know, like Greg Morris or something.
Some of these places you can find a high grade of those
lesser known players for pretty darn cheap.
(21:45):
And So what I would do is I wouldn't just sit and wait and
wait and wait for eventually those cards to show up in a high
grade SGC holder. I personally would go out and I
would buy cards that I thought you, I think you said SGC 6 or
(22:06):
better. I would go out and find cards
that I thought would get at least a seven in ungraded form.
And I would say, oh, this is this card's at least a 7.
And then that gives you a marginfor error where if you're off by
a full grade, it still gets the six that you want.
And, and I would go out and I would find cards that I think
have will get sevens have a chance at an 8 ungraded could
(22:31):
probably get those cards for less than 10 bucks in most
cases. And I would send them to SGC
myself. And if for some chance a card
came back as a 5.5 or something,you can hold it until you find
an upgrade if you wanted to actually stick with your goal of
the six or better. And then when you find the six
or the 6 1/2, then you could sell the five and a half and get
(22:54):
most of your money back anyway. And you might even make money on
on the total investment that youhave in the cart.
So I wouldn't wait around for a bunch of people to be grading a
bunch of lesser known players ofthat set.
I would go out and do it myself.So I would be hunting for really
(23:16):
sharp, good looking cards that Ithink are sevens or better.
I'd send them into STC. I'd get them slab myself.
I'd pay the 15 bucks to STC to slab them up.
And when you're done, I think you're going to have an awesome
project. Awesome idea.
This one says never miss a show.Great job.
You mentioned PSA grading standards have gotten tougher.
(23:39):
What about grading consistency with SGC?
Thanks, Joe. So I mean it, it's, it's super
interesting because we always, we're always talking about
grading and a lot of people get,Oh my gosh, here we go about
grading. But grading has become so
ingrained in the hobby. It is an important topic.
It is a topic that needs to be discussed.
(24:02):
It's important to be discussed because a lot of people, most
people that collect care about values.
And if you care about values, then grading has something to do
with that. Now, whether it should be that
way or not, it is a completely different discussion.
But I totally hear what you're saying about the consistency.
Now, first thing I'll say is it's really easy for us to beat
(24:27):
up on the grading companies. It's really easy for us to
complain about the times that our cards get a lower grade than
we think that they should get. It is really easy for us to do
that. And, and what we don't remember
a lot is the card that we sent in that we thought was going to
get a six and it got a 7. Like we don't, we don't sit
there and go, Oh yeah, man, thatcard, I got hooked up on that
(24:50):
card. But what we do remember is the
time that we thought the card was going to get a four and they
only gave it a three that we remember.
And, and it's been, it's been a theme I've talked about a lot
lately. We are always focusing on the
negative. We are constantly and don't, I'm
not trying to say I'm innocent from this.
I am as guilty as anyone. I do it as well.
(25:12):
I don't want to be this way, butI definitely find myself when
something good happens, I'm quick to forget it.
And when something bad happens, I can't forget it.
And, and so grading companies, there are times cards are
overgraded. There are times cards are
(25:32):
undergraded. And I know that we sit there and
go, that's insane. I actually don't think that's
insane. I actually think that when they
say, yeah, you know, you send the card in five times and it
can get a different grade each time, that actually makes sense
to me because it's a human beingwho's doing it.
As long as human beings are doing the grading, there is
(25:56):
going to be a, a, a lack of consistency.
It there just is anytime human beings are involved, there is a
margin for error. And when you are ramping up how
many cards you're grading over aperiod of time, a short period
of time, then you're going to have more newer people, less
experienced people and that margin for error is going to get
(26:18):
bigger. Now, in a perfect world, we
would send in the card 10 times and it would get the same grade
all 10 times. And if we want a computerized
grading system, that's probably what could happen.
But that's not apparently what people want because that's not
(26:38):
what people are. People are not just, you know,
sending in all their cards to tag grading like they're sending
them in to the human graders. And we know that there are
inconsistencies with human graders.
The fact and then the the point and I've made this point to the
problem is if you give my card A7 and it should have gotten a
nine is the difference in value between the seven and the 9 is
(27:00):
just astronomical. And so when you, you know,
messed me over on the grading and you gave it a 7 and it
should have gotten a nine, you cost me thousands and thousands
of dollars. I get that.
I hear that. I agree with that.
I've said that. But the problem is that's not on
the grading company, that's on us.
(27:22):
We the collectors, we the hobbyists, we're the ones who
continue to say, well, if it hasa nine, I'm willing to pay 4
times as much as the one that has A7 on it.
We're the ones that do that. We're the ones that set the
prices. PSA doesn't grade a card and
then say, well, this is what it's worth.
Now, that's not what they do. They just grade the card.
(27:43):
But what we are doing is we say that card has a nine, that card
has a 7. Even though the seven looks
better than the 9, even though the seven looks like the better
card, I'm going to pay way more for the 9 than the seven.
And that's on us. We have to get away from that.
We have to stop doing that. We have to look at the card and
(28:05):
go, I don't care what the greater said, that grader had a
bad day 'cause that card to me is a near mint card.
It's not an X Mint card. So I'm going to go after the
near Mint looking card because it is near Mint.
It's not X-Men, even though the grade says X-Men.
I know it might sound like at times that some of this is all
(28:29):
contradictory and, and to a certain extent it is, but I
think that we have to continue to remind ourselves that grading
is an opinion. It's a third party person's
opinion. That person might be on the 9
1/2 hour of their ten hour shiftand they've been looking at
cards all day and they're hungryand they're ready to go home and
(28:51):
they're missing their kids baseball game and they're
grading our card that the difference between a nine and a
seven is $10,000. We we have to look at how wild
that is. We have to look at that.
And when when people when we arewilling to pay thousands of
(29:14):
dollars more for A10 than a nine, when the 9 might be a
better card, we have to take thepower back.
And Greg, you sound like a broken record.
OK, maybe I'm a broken record, but I'm going to continue to say
that. So the question is, and I
(29:35):
haven't even really addressed the question, but I have, I
mean, the question is, are thereinconsistencies with STC?
Of course, are there consistencyissues with PSA, of course.
But it absolutely seems. And is this anecdotal or is
this, you know, something that Ihave some scientific evidence
(29:57):
on? It's anecdotal, but I have seen
more cards come through PSA thathave been graded more harshly
than I have seen with SGC. If I send a card into SGC, most
of the time the card is going toget pretty darn close to the
(30:18):
grade. I'm rarely going to be blown
away that SGC, Oh my gosh, SGC gave it a three.
I thought I was going to get a 61/2 or A7.
That doesn't happen, but that does happen with PSA and and
video after video. You can watch it just hours and
hours and hours of this on YouTube of people doing PSA
(30:40):
reveals going how is this card A6?
This card to me is a nine. How is this a six in?
Some of it is we're probably notlooking at our cards close
enough when before we send them in.
And part of this is, you know, could be issues with graders and
some of this could be the new technology that's being used.
(31:02):
But of course, there's inconsistencies.
It's human grading it. There are always errors.
There are always errors with anything when humans are
involved. I'm not perfect.
You're not perfect. The persons you know across the
hall from us isn't perfect. So in my humble opinion,
(31:27):
anecdotal is just anecdotal. This is just Greg.
What do you think my opinion is?I have seen many many many more
cards be graded by PSA that I looked at him and said I don't
get the grade then SGC. 95% of the time I see a card that's
(31:51):
been graded by SGC and I go, I, I, I can see it, I get it.
But but there are many more times that that happens with
PSA. Does that mean we should shut
PSA down? Does that mean PSA should go
away? Does that mean we should stop
using PSA? I mean, we got to do you, you
all, We all have to do what we think is best for us.
(32:12):
But I don't think so. Again, I will continue to beat
the dead horse. Grading is an opinion.
The number is assigned to the card by a person who looks at a
rubric and looks at certain qualities about the card.
(32:36):
They go, OK, the corners, is there a touch?
Is there frame, is there bend? Is there significant rounding?
Is there some rounding? And they use an opinion for that
rubric and they go through it step by step, I have no doubt.
And they look at it and they make judgments, I have no doubt.
(32:57):
And some people's judgment of fraying versus rounding versus
significant rounding is going tobe different from person to
person. And it doesn't matter if you
train them all day every day. But we have to also keep in mind
PSA is grading over 1,000,000 cards a month right now.
And five years ago, they weren't.
(33:19):
So they had to come up with graders.
They had to hire people. They had to have people work
more hours. They had to have more hours
being spent on grading cards than they used to.
They had to have. That's the only way it would be
possible to grade more cards. And so either the same number of
people are working longer hours,which is probably going to lead
(33:41):
to some inconsistencies, or they're hiring new people who
have less experience, which is going to lead to some
inconsistencies regardless. I do I have proof that PSA has
been more inconsistent than SGC?No, but does SGC have some
(34:06):
inconsistencies? Of course, of course, 'cause
they're humans. So I don't know how else to say
it, I and I'm not I, I definitely there are
inconsistencies with STC. Definitely there are
inconsistencies with PSA. Definitely there are
(34:26):
inconsistencies with anything ora human being is involved in the
process of judging something. And the way that as collectors
we are spending our money, we are making that result in huge
(34:47):
amounts of dollars lost or addedbased on the number that was an
assigned, which is an opinion bya person who's sitting in a room
at a grading company. When you look at it like that,
we have to really take a deep look at how much value are we
(35:12):
going to continue to put into a grade.
The grade has some value doesn'tdetermine all of the value, even
though right now a lot of peoplein the hobby are making it the
number one factor by a long shoton what the value is based on
(35:34):
And finally, this one says I've been focusing on collecting
sealed baseball product such as cello packs and rack packs with
stars or Hall of Fame rookie cards on top along with factory
sealed and BBCEFASC boxes. I would love to get your opinion
on this subject and if you're interested in this type of
(35:57):
collecting. All right, so I, I think this
is, this is a super fun way to collect what you're suggesting
is a fun way to collect sealed wax, sealed cellos, sealed rack
packs where there are certain players showing on the packs.
(36:18):
Absolutely fun thing to do. Now, is it for me at this
moment, as things stand right now, that is not something that
really gets my juices flowing, but I completely understand why
it would get somebody else's juices flowing.
(36:39):
The longer I have been in the hobby, the more I am looking for
new things to search for. And I've, I've said this many
times, I'll continue to say thismany times that I like to see
things that I don't see every day.
If you're watching a baseball game and they throw a perfect
(37:00):
game, you're like, Oh my gosh, Ijust watched the perfect game.
That never happens. That's intriguing.
That's exciting, right? That's that would be exciting to
see a perfect game. My dad and my brother went to a
A's Yankees game in Oakland couple years ago and they
watched a perfect game. Not a lot of people have done
(37:22):
that. That makes it extra exciting
when you see things that you don't see every day.
That is exciting, That is fun. And and you don't see cello
packs every day or rack wax packs every day or old wax boxes
every day. You just don't see that stuff a
lot. And when you do see cello packs
(37:43):
and rack packs, you don't generally see like one of the
key chase cards on the top. So that makes it unusual and
unusual is interesting. It is, at least it is to me, in
this hobby where there are thousands and thousands of
directions you can go and we getto pick whichever directions we
want to go. It's fun to find a, a niche
(38:08):
somewhere in there that is different, that is unusual.
It's different than what everyone else is doing.
You know, for me, part of the, the excitement about putting
together my pirate card set is Idon't know anybody putting
together a pirate card set. At least I didn't at the time.
That was different. There were cards that were new
(38:29):
to me. It was a set that was new to me.
It was an era of cards that was new to me and that made it
unique, that made it special, that made it interesting.
And so the thing about this hobby is there are some people
who like autographed cards, somepeople who don't, some people
who like old cards, some people like new, some people like shiny
(38:51):
cards, some people don't. Some people don't like
multiplayer cards, other people do.
Some people don't like All Star cards, other people do.
Some people like SGC, some people like PSA, some people
like CGC. There are so many options that
you get to pick your route, you get to decide which lines to
(39:13):
connect in your route, in building your collection.
And I could totally see the excitement of going after wax
'cause you don't see it all the time.
And going after unopened stuff with top cards showing on the
the tops or the bottoms of the pack 'cause you don't see it all
(39:34):
the time 'cause what are the chances of that happening?
Is it for me? No.
But what I do think is somethingthat we all should consider is
don't just look at what is what is Greg doing?
Oh, Greg likes pirate cards. I'm going to like pirate cards.
Oh, Tony Liebric likes autographed cards.
(39:57):
So I'm going to like autographedcards.
What you should do is you shouldgo to a card show and you should
look around. And when you look around.
You should sit there and go. That right there is really cool.
That's what you should buy. And if that right there, which
(40:18):
is really cool, is unopened wax,collect unopened wax.
But just because it's not for medoesn't mean it shouldn't be for
you. These are the sorts of
conversations I love. These are the sorts of topics
that I absolutely love. And, and, and when I started the
(40:41):
channel, nobody was watching. Nobody watched my channel
because nobody knew I existed. And I couldn't wait until people
watched so that we could have this dialogue where you could
ask me questions and I could share my thoughts, where I could
(41:03):
ask you all questions like on Mondays.
And I could share your thoughts.And then I could share my
responses where you all could beadding cards to your collection
and you could be sharing them with me so I could share them
with everyone. The dialogue of the community,
the the Midlife Nation communitythat we have put together here
(41:26):
is what makes this whole thing 10 times more fun.
You can collect unopened wax andI could not, but we could still
coexist in a hobby and have a ton of fun together and totally
respect each other. Some of the channels that I
watch and I get the most excitedwatching and I get the most
(41:47):
excited when I see that they're posting a new video, are people
who collect completely differently than me.
They own stuff I would never ever own.
But it's not about what they collect.
And I'll say this until I'm bluein the face.
I love the hobby. Not because other people for
(42:10):
what they collect, it's for why they collected.
I am interested in hearing what gets people excited and why it
gets them excited. I am not I, you do not have to
collect like me and I do not have to collect like you for us
to be able to come together and have discussions about the hobby
(42:32):
and, and enjoy that time together.
Most of my friends that are in this hobby collect so
differently than me, so differently than me, but we have
a fun time when we're talking cards, even though we do it
differently. So the thing I loved about this
(42:53):
question and why I was happy to include it this this week is
because it's a perfect example of how I could have none in my
collection of what you're describing.
Well, actually, I have a couple that were gifts and you might
have no pirate cards in your collection, even though I have
the whole set. And we could still coexist in
(43:15):
this hobby and we can still havea blast together talking about
the hobby and enjoying it. I just love when people have
things that they're passionate about and sharing why they're
passionate about it. That's the part that I love.
If you have something you want to talk about, if you have a
(43:35):
topic in the hobby that you wantbrought up on an upcoming
episode, a question you wanted to check my opinion on, which I
might agree with you, I might disagree with you.
But that's the beauty. Because if we agreed on
everything, do you know how boring this would be?
If we agreed on everything, thiswould be the most boring thing
of all time. We would all be out collecting
(43:58):
the same thing, but we all show up to card shows and we all have
different eBay searches and we all go to different auction
houses and what you are looking for and what I am looking for
are completely different. That's the fun part.
That's the best part. So share your questions down
(44:20):
below that you want to brought up be brought up on an upcoming
episode. I look forward to those.
Thank you to everybody who askeda question.
Thanks for watching.
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