October 19, 2025 • 46 mins
Graig has a YouTube channel called "MidLife Sports Cards" and has a weekly Q and A series.
Another batch of great questions in the Midlife Midweek Q and A episode again this week. Are SGC slabs doomed? Which grading company will SGC lovers go to if they go away? Why do some cards mean more than others? How can you grow your hobby network? These are all questions and topics that I discuss in this week's episode.Card Ladder is now the exclusive sports card app partner of MidLife Cards. If you'd like to try Card Ladder for FREE for ONE MONTH or signup for a year subscription for $20 off go to https://www.cardladder.com/ and use the promo code: midlife
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:11):
What's going on, everybody? All right, this is Wednesday,
Wednesday's Q&A day, which always revolves around your
questions. So if you like the topics, if
you don't like the topics, if you like the questions, I would
say ask a question, Ask it a question that you have as a
topic that you want brought up. Don't hesitate to do that down
(00:34):
below in the comments. I every week when I, I look at
the Wednesday video from the week before to see what new
questions rolled in. And if there aren't enough
questions from that week, I go into the vault and I find a
question that I've had for a while that hasn't been answered
yet. Now the last couple of weeks
I've been a little bit light on questions.
(00:55):
So I don't know if you guys don't like me anymore.
I don't know if you don't like Q&A anymore, but we've been a
little bit light, but we do still have 5 questions this
week. But I will say 2 of the
questions were similar enough that were overlapped enough that
I'm going to combine those two and give one response to the two
(01:17):
questions because a lot of the response that I would give kind
of answers both of them. So we will have 5 questions this
week for responses, for thoughts, for opinions on what I
think about the topics that you bring up or share, whatever the
story is or whatever. Now again, later this week, I've
(01:38):
got at least a couple of episodes coming out. 1 is going
to be my pickups from the month of September, including one of
my favorite pickups in a really,really long time, a card I've
been hunting for over 2 years. Also, we'll have our Off Topic
episode for the month. Remember, we do one on my
(02:02):
channel, 1 on Darren's channel, Return to Collecting.
And this month is my turn to host the guest.
And our guest is going to be none other than Ray from Philly,
one of the nicest and best guys in the hobby, and he will be on.
We will. We actually just recorded that,
but that will post here in the next two or three days.
(02:25):
So be on the lookout for that. And with that, again, questions
for upcoming episodes down belowin the comments.
But let's look at our first question here.
This week's first question says I have a topic suggestion for an
upcoming episode. Which card or cards in your
(02:46):
collection has or have the most sentimental value to you and
why? For me, it's the 1987 Tops Cal
Ripken Junior given to me by my dad when I first started
collecting. That card sparked my interest in
collecting and I have never stopped since.
Thanks for the great videos. Well you know I love this
(03:09):
question. This question is right up my
alley. It is something that I've asked
on Monday episodes before of share a story of a memorable
pickup or memorable purchase or a card that means a lot to you
and to me. The the whole hobby.
It, it really doesn't revolve around the values of the cards.
(03:31):
It doesn't revolve around the rarity of the cards.
It it revolves around the memoryof the cards.
To me, the the memory means as much as anything.
There are cards in my collectionthat for a certain price I would
sell them. I would hey, hate me, love me,
(03:54):
whatever you think. But we have a price for most
things. But then there are some things
where the value of that item to you is so much more than it
would be to anybody else. And, and that is where the
memory comes in. The cards that we remember how
(04:14):
we got it, where we got it, who were we with when we got it.
Those are the most special cardsin our collection.
And when we sometimes will flip through our collection and go,
all right, let's see, which cards have I fallen out of love
with? Which cards am I willing to part
with? Which cards am I willing to
consolidate to get that big cardthat I've been wanting for a
(04:35):
while? My guess is for almost all of
us, the hardest cards to part with are the ones that have a
sentimental value, specifically an important story of how you
obtained it. And I've told the story before
about my Ernie Banks card. In fact, last week ago Monday, I
(04:55):
was on The Odd Couple Life on Tony Lebrik's Channel Southern
Collector 14 with my buddies. And when we were on, Tony asked
us to share about our cornerstone card in our
collection, the card that kind of tells the most about your
collecting. And I shared my 54 TOPS Ernie
(05:18):
Banks. And that definitely is an
important card, a cornerstone card with a very important story
attached to it. But there's a card that means
more to me than that. There's a card that means a lot
more than than to me than that. And I've told the story I think
once on my channel and then I told it once on another channel.
(05:39):
So some of you may have heard this and some of you maybe
haven't heard it, but when I was10 years old, when I was in 3rd
grade, I was on the Red Sox, wasmy Little League team, and I was
the pitcher on the team. I was, I pitched if, if I had
the innings available to pitch, I pitched.
And so I'm a Red Sox pitcher andit's about 198788.
(06:05):
And before you know it, I becomea Rodger Clemens fan because he
is an absolute stud at the time he is on the Red Sox, he is a
pitcher. So I identified so much with
Rodger Clemens and I, he, he became my guy for baseball.
Now, some of you love Clemens, some of you hate Clemens.
(06:27):
That's OK. He will always have a very
special place in my heart. I've seen him pitch live many
times. I thought saw him throw a
shutout at the Oakland Coliseum and I followed him, him closely.
Well, at this time in about now,1988 or 89, when I'm heavily
into cards and I'm heavily into Rodger Clemens, I went to a card
(06:51):
show and there were not a ton ofcard shows at the time.
But one of the main card shows was a card show in Concord, CA,
which was about 40 minutes away from us.
And they held it in like an ElksLodge or one of those sort of,
you know, higher Order of the Elk or whatever.
You know what these clubs for older retired guys where they go
(07:14):
and hang out and one of the members of the club was a card
collector and a card dealer. And so he would put on these
card shows and what he did to hewasn't trying to make money, he
was just trying to create this community event.
And so we would go and what would happen is when you came in
the show, it was like a dollar or two to get in.
(07:36):
And when you got in, you would get a ticket.
You know, like those tickets where it's got the two the keep
this coupon, the ticket. They you know, you split them
down the middle, you pull it offand then one goes into the
raffle and one goes, you hang onto and you you try to win.
So we would go to this card Showtime and time again and I
(07:57):
never won. But the the amazing thing is
this is in about 198889 and the raffle prizes was every hour on
the hour they raffled off a $100voucher that could be used in
the show. Basically they were taking all
the entry costs for the people with the tickets at the door and
(08:20):
they were turning around and giving it back to the customers,
which had to be good for the dealers because then the dealers
had they had they had money kindof going around the room.
And so we would, you know, wait for an hour and Nope, didn't win
next hour. Nope, didn't win.
You know when we would stay for 3-4 hours at these shows because
(08:40):
this was sort of like the prime card shows that we would attend.
Well, about the third or fourth time we attended the show, my
brother and I kind of came up with this idea of, well, a lot
because what they would do is they would read the numbers and
people say, oh, that person is not here anymore.
You know, they wait. Nobody would come up and claim
(09:01):
it, that person must have left. Read another number, nobody
would claim it. That person must have left.
So somewhere in my head, I said what we need to do, since we're
just hanging out at the show, isas people are leaving, we need
to say, hey, are you leaving? Yes, we're leaving.
Would it be OK if I have your raffle ticket?
(09:23):
Well sure. Here you go.
So before long my brother and I had about 2025 raffle tickets
each and so they would read the number and we'd have them in
number order and we'd be going down seeing if any of them
matched because we were collecting the tickets of the
people leaving for the day. Well, at that time, my prized
(09:49):
card, my dream card, my absolutedream card was the 84 Fleer
Roger Clemens Fleer update card.I wanted that card so bad, but
it was so far out of reach because the card in Beckett was
$80.00. And at the time, if Beckett said
it was $80, you'd go to a card show, they were asking $80.
(10:11):
That's just the way that it worked then, right?
I mean, a lot of us remember those times.
So eventually we, we, my number gets pulled and I, I run up to
the front to the guy at the speaker.
I give him the ticket, he checksit.
Sure enough I won the $100 voucher and I am like so nervous
(10:37):
so beside myself and and I had been at the show all day so I
had already found and spotted the 1/19/84 FLIR update Roger
Clemens that was in the room for$80.00.
So I immediately ran to my dad, showed my dad that I won, which
(10:58):
I'm sure he knew because he probably saw the whole thing
transpire at the show and he said what are you going to buy?
I said I'm buying the Clemens. I ran straight over the table
and I hand over my $100. They were in $20 increments.
I handed him four of the $20 increment vouchers for the
(11:21):
Clemens card, and this right here is that Clemens card.
This is the exact one that I gotthat day that I got from the
vouchers from the raffle. Now at the time, again, $80.00
was like it's probably like 4 or$500 now.
(11:43):
It's just like so far out of my price range.
I would show up to a show with like maybe 20 bucks, 15 or 20
bucks. So to be able to land an $80
card, which was my absolute dream card is something I'll
never forget. And this is the exact one.
(12:05):
Again, this was probably about 19891990.
So we're talking 3540 years ago that I got this card and there
is not an amount of money that Iwould well, is there?
I can't imagine letting this card go.
It would have to be like $500,000 for me to to, It would
(12:30):
have to be money where I could like go quit my job.
But this card is the most special card in my collection.
And I have a lot of special cards.
But this is #1 because of the story and because of the memory
that I have attached to the card.
And that to me is the most important part of the hobby.
(12:52):
It's not owning the cards. It's the story of acquiring the
cards and saving for the cards and planning for the cards and
hunting for the cards and then finding the right one and making
the deal happen. And then you end up with
something like this. This next one says, hey, Greg,
I've been vacationing in Hawaii for a few weeks, so I haven't
(13:16):
asked you a new question for a while.
Here's one for you. Do you think it would be a great
idea to start a spreadsheet or any other way to document your
inventory of cards and their values to make it easier for
your loved ones to deal with thefallout if something were to
happen to one of us collectors? Is there a website that you know
(13:41):
of and would recommend that can put all this information in and
compensate for the fluctuation of values over time?
I am at the age where I am thinking of my kids and what
they will have to deal with whenI am gone.
Any advice would be appreciated.OK, so I think personally one of
(14:05):
the things that I think is really important is financial
planning, future planning, estate planning.
I think that's really important stuff because if you don't plan
for the future and you react to the future, you're not going to
be prepared for the future and things aren't going to go the
way that you want them to go. And unfortunately, we don't know
(14:29):
if tomorrow will be here for each and every one of us.
And so if you have a decent amount of value in your
collection, I'm assuming that you want your family members to
be able to reap the benefits of that.
Now, my kids don't want my cards.
My wife doesn't want my cards. But I do hope that when I am
(14:52):
gone that I can leave them some money that would allow their
life to be more comfortable, allow their life to have some
less stress. And so leaving them instructions
or information to be able to liquidate the collection that I
(15:12):
have is something that I absolutely am planning to do and
I'm working on doing. One of the arguments I have made
for a long time is people say, why do you even need to get your
cards graded? Who cares?
Is it if it's just to authenticate them?
And one of my arguments has been, I think that cards that
(15:33):
have a decent amount of value, you need to get graded because
by grading them it makes it easier to sell them.
And it provides information about the quality, about the,
the type, about the player, about the, IT provides
information that makes it easierto liquidate.
And though you say I know all about my cards, I know that
(15:55):
these are worth money and these aren't worth money.
And these are worth a little bit.
And that's worth a little bit. But if, if somebody can just
simply go into eBay and type in whatever's on the flip,
including the grade, they know what the card is worth.
And to me, I want to make it easier for them.
(16:16):
So I believe one of the biggest reasons I believe in grading is
because it makes it easier to liquidate, not necessarily for
me, but for whoever ends up withthem someday.
Because remember, all of our cards will eventually be sold by
someone, and we want that someone to have an idea of what
(16:36):
they're worth. Now you doing it in an Excel
spreadsheet could be a little bit cumbersome.
It wouldn't include pictures, itwouldn't take into account the
changes in values. So I have said now for a few
(16:56):
weeks, because I came out a few weeks ago and I said I've tried
VCP vintage card prices as a card comping app.
I have tried Market Movers as a card comping app, both of which
you can enter your collection into the system and it will
(17:17):
track the changes and fluctuations in the prices.
And I came out a couple of months ago and I told you guys
that I am all in with card ladder.
And what happened was I had cardladder, I had Market Movers, I
had VCP, but card ladder had everything that I wanted.
(17:37):
Card ladder had the best, the best ability to comp in my
opinion. It had the the easiest way to
check prices and and find cards.It was far less cumbersome.
It was easy to find pop reports,all of that.
And it has a fantastic spot where it's, it's called your
(18:00):
collection on the app and you hit the collection.
And once you hit the collection,you can very, very easily upload
your cards into the app. So if it's APSA graded card, you
just add and then you type in the the PSA serial number, it
finds it in the PSA database, ituploads it, it finds the value
(18:24):
and as the values change up and down it, it tracks it.
I mean, it's absolutely fantastic.
And a lot of people have said, oh, Greg, you know, it's like 15
or $20.00 a month. I understand that.
But to me, and I live in California, I don't know what
things cost elsewhere, but if I,Greg went to McDonald's today
(18:49):
and got a Big Mac meal, if I gota Big Mac meal at McDonald's, it
would be about 15 bucks. That that's about what it would
be $15 in today's day and age or$20 in today's day and age,
whatever the price is, is very, very little in my opinion.
(19:09):
And people say, I already have, you know, Disney subscription
and Netflix and Hulu and, and this and that.
And, and I understand that. I do understand that.
But the way I look at it is thisis my hobby that I spend a lot
of time on. But also, this is a way it's
it's it's like a way to protect your family against getting
(19:33):
ripped off when you someday havethem sell the collection.
Because if they can get into your card ladder app and they
can go into the collection, theyknow exactly what you have and
exactly what everything's worth as it goes up, as it goes down
and everything in between. So in am I sponsored by card
(19:55):
ladder? Yes, yes, I am absolutely saying
that. But I've also told you guys, the
only companies that I would be sponsored by under any
circumstance are the companies that I actually use and the
actually that I believe in. And card ladder is the best
option. So again, I've mentioned this a
(20:17):
few times, I'll continue to mention it from time to time.
It's at the end, at the outro ofevery episode but the.
Promo code Midlife lets you try it lets you try Card Ladder for
free for a month or if you go onCard Ladder's website, you can
try Card Ladder for a week, but if you use my promo code, you
(20:37):
can try it for a month. The other thing that you could
do is you could sign up for CardLadder for a year and it takes
$20 off the price for the year. So it saves you a few dollars.
I think if you just go to their website, I think, I don't know,
maybe it's 5 or $10 off for a year.
So you get the most off. Now I negotiated those things
(20:58):
when Carl Ladder and I decided, hey, let's work together, let's
talk about this. I said you got to give me
something that's going to help out the people that are viewers
of my channel. If I'm going to suggest this to
them, you have to make an extra good deal for them.
And they said, OK, what do you want?
And I said I want a month trial instead of a week.
(21:19):
They said OK. I said I want more money off
through my promo code than the other promo codes.
And they said OK so $20 off or afree trial for a month.
Try it for a month. If you don't like it then get
rid of it. But you will absolutely like it.
(21:40):
So my answer to this is a very simple solution.
You sign up for card ladder. You now have the best card app,
the best card comping app, you have the best research tool, and
you have a place to upload all of your collection.
Store it and it tracks the values for you and load it onto
(22:03):
your spouse's phone. Put the password in, have it
saved at any time they can checkand see it and have access to
your collection. This to me is an absolute no
brainer. So that's your answer.
Easy done deal. I really think you won't regret
(22:23):
doing that. Question.
How does 1 organically grow their network within the hobby
with no social media? I understand it's as simple as
saying hello and starting a conversation at a card show, but
vendors talk to so many people during a show and others seem to
(22:45):
be to themselves. May you give some examples of
making friends within the hobby before YouTube or connecting
through social media or purchasing a card from a vendor?
OK, this is you've painted me into a corner with the
parameters in which I can make suggestions here.
(23:07):
The first thing I would say is social media is actually really
good for social networking. Like that's the whole point of
social media is that you can network with other people with
similar interests. And so I, I kind of say, well,
why not use social media? I think Facebook, if you're a
(23:30):
card collector and you're not onFacebook and in a bunch of the
Facebook groups, I don't understand why not.
I don't. I just, I, I don't understand
why not. If you're not on Instagram, I
don't understand why not. Now let me say this.
I am not a fan of social media. I think that things that people
post on social media say on social media, the fake
(23:53):
information on social media is not good.
It is it is corrupting. It is, I don't have social media
for personal use. I mean, I think I, I years and
years ago I had, I had like a Facebook account and an
Instagram account and I literally shut them down like 5
(24:17):
or 6 years ago because it was like it was just bad.
And then I set up accounts for midlife for, for the channel.
And I think when I did that, it made those other ones active.
So if you've ever found me like on Facebook or Instagram, like
my personal account and you're like, why isn't he responding?
It's because I, I literally don't open them or check them
(24:39):
because I just think that it's like bad.
So I'm assuming that's what you're saying.
What I would say is have an account just for the hobby, just
for networking purposes. There's really no reason if you
don't want your name out there where people can find you or
something, put some nickname. I mean, Tony is southern
(25:02):
collector 14. He's he's southern collector 14.
You know, I'm midlife cards on Instagram and Facebook.
I, I mean you, I would, I would use social media because that is
what it's best for. But the that's not your
question. Your question is besides social
(25:23):
media. I think when I was growing up,
the way that we met people, the best was a couple of ways #1
hanging out at card shops, goingto the card shop, not going in
for 20 minutes and then leaving.But going in and, and hanging
(25:44):
out and talking to the other customers and talking to the
owner and talking to the workers, looking at the cards,
making deals. You, you can start to
organically grow some form of a network through that.
But I think from, from my memory, if memory serves me
(26:05):
best, the way that I've made thethe most connections is at card
shows. And I know what you're saying.
You're saying what card shows there's, you know, 500 customers
that go up to a dealer? How are they going to Remember
Me? How am I going to know them?
I would say because what most people do is they meet them and
(26:28):
then they connect to them on Facebook and Instagram and then
they message them, Hey, good seeing you at the show today.
You know, if you come across this card and this card, let me
know. You could make business cards,
you could make business cards. You could e-mail the person when
you get home, get their e-mail address, give them your card.
(26:49):
Hey, remember I'm the guy that gave you the business card
today. That could work.
But some of the best ways that we've really gotten to know
other people in the hobby is is by setting up as a dealer.
So like when you set up as a dealer, there's like this few
(27:13):
hour period where you're all kind of setting up and you're
all kind of looking out for eachother.
And you got to go around and youlook at other people's tables
and you say, Oh yeah, you know, my table's over there.
And people are other dealers arebuying from you and you're
buying from other dealers. And there's that is a really,
really good way to make a memorable lasting connection to
(27:37):
someone. Now, depending on where you
live, sometimes the dealer cost is or the table cost is really
expensive. But I mean, if you could get a
table for 100 bucks, maybe sell $100 worth of stuff that you're
not interested in, break even. But then you have a day or two
where you're making connections with other people in the hobby.
(27:59):
That's the best way. Because once you form a core
group, that core group is going to kind of spread.
Because if you connect with fivepeople and each of those people
have 5 people they're connected with.
And you say, hey, do you know anybody who is, you know, sells
T2O sixes and this guy goes, well, I have these two friends
and then that those guys, they have each have another guy and
(28:21):
all of a sudden you've got a connection.
So it does require some work. And a lot of us in the hobby are
quirky. Let's face it, there's a reason
that we're in the hobby or there's a reason that we study
cards that we, you know, look through our cards on our own.
A lot of us are kind of OCD types, myself very much
(28:46):
included. A lot of us are introverted
types because you can do this hobby independently, you don't
have to do it as a group. And so a lot of us have some
quirkiness and a lot of other people are in the same situation
as you where they're, they want to have a few hobby buddies, but
(29:07):
they don't know how to make hobby buddies.
So the best way to make a hobby buddy is to try to connect with
other people because I think those other people are looking
to connect to, they're just not really comfortable at how to do
that. So it's sort of like, you know,
in elementary school when there's a new kid at the school
(29:28):
that shows up and you say, hey, you want to eat in our group,
you know, at lunch and they go, OK.
And now all of a sudden they're a friend in your group.
It's just like that. But if you're anti social media,
I would say do it for the hobby only.
Don't do it for personal use, for connecting with family
members and friends. And I literally have most of if
(29:53):
not all of my family members blocked on my social media
accounts because I I don't have any interest in finding things
out and and seeing posts that they make that are going to
irritate me. So I just don't go there.
So that's my take I hope it helps.
(30:15):
But I would say maybe make cards, business cards, hand them
out, follow up with dealers at shows, e-mail them, start course
respondents with them. Try social media for the hobby
only. And, and I think setting up as a
dealer and just trying to sell off some of the stuff that maybe
(30:36):
you're not that interested in anymore, but that could help you
at least break even on the table.
If you are kind of active and social when you set up as a
dealer, you definitely would make a handful of connections
that way too. So those are my suggestions.
I hope they're good ones, but those are some things that I've
done before YouTube that I thinkhave worked.
(31:02):
This one says since SCC is pretty much in shambles slowly.
I'm not a fan of PSA. If we are stranded with limited
options, why don't we switch to Beckett?
One thing I love about Beckett is their subgrades.
At least we know what's wrong with the card itself when we
look at subgrades. And a similar and related
(31:26):
question says. I think the real question at
this rate is if collectors really shuts down SGC, what do
people do with their current SGCslabs and who do they go to for
grading? I would think the majority would
choose CGC or BGS, but even if aminority pick PSA, it's a win
(31:49):
for collectors as the revenue will be as good or better due to
the higher priced and up charges.
And I think that's what collectors saw when wanting to
squeeze SGC down. All right, again, these are the
4th and 5th topics questions andI just kind of lumped them
(32:10):
together because they're very, very similar.
And I think that both of these make some really good points
and, and all of us don't know about the unknown.
You know, I did a video a week and a half ago or so about just
listing the facts of what was happening with SGC and it kind
(32:31):
of provides some clues on where they might be going.
I am going to continue to say that I hope that SGC is around
indefinitely. I like SGCI literally have APSA
order that I just, I'm sorry, I literally have an SGC order that
(32:52):
I just got back. In fact, I'll probably do like
an unboxing video and, and show how it went because there were
definitely some interesting things that happened.
And I, I think there might be some, I think, I think things
that SGC are maybe changing. I'll just say that, but watch my
(33:14):
video, you'll see what I mean. But I, I think that that's the
question is if SGC goes away, because I think most of us, a
lot of us, not most of us, a lotof us that have been cool with
SGC will continue to be cool with SGC as long as SGC is still
(33:34):
around. So the question really boils
down to if collectors, the parent company were to end SGC
and then try to divert all of the SGC people to PSA and people
don't want to do PSA, then what?That's the question.
(33:55):
And and also what the question is, is what does that do to the
PSA slabs that we have now? I mean, I have a couple of
pretty big cards. Some of the bigger cards in my
collection are in, did I say PSAslabs in the SGC slabs?
Some of my bigger cards are in SGC slabs.
(34:17):
So what happens to those cards 5-10 years into the future if
SGC goes away? Again, if SGC doesn't go away, I
I think this is a moot point forthe most part.
So let me try to share my thoughts.
First, it depends on why you area collector and it depends on
(34:40):
how much value matters to you, if at all.
And it partly depends on do you think you might be selling or
reselling at some point. If you are the type of collector
that once a card comes into yourcollection, it is never leaving
your collection until you are gone, then I think you can make
(35:05):
the argument that your SGC slabsversus your PSA slabs or or who
to go with. I don't know how much it matters
as long as you're enjoying the card.
Now do I think that it could potentially affect the value of
cards in SGC slabs? Yes.
Let me get to that in a second though.
(35:27):
So I think if, if people are going to pick graders now
because remember, we, I mean, some of us weren't back in the
hobby yet. Some of us were still in the
hobby. But there was a time, and it
wasn't crazy long ago where the number one grading company was
Beckett. It was the number one grading
(35:50):
company. The premium was on Beckett's
labs, not PSA slabs. And so you know, you know,
especially with modern, especially like APSA 10 versus a
ABGS 9.5, the premium was on the9.5 and and that was real, that
(36:10):
actually happened. So things can change now, should
you go with Beckett instead of CGC or PSA or whoever else that
you'd consider maybe. I mean, it really boils down to
what is the reason you collect? How much does value matter and
(36:33):
what does the what does the slabeven?
What is the importance of the slab for you?
The problem is going to be that the perceived value of some
holders and some grades is not equal.
That's the problem. So if, if you know, 10% of
(36:57):
people who are at SGC go over toBeckett and they start getting
Beckett grades, which by the way, I agree, I like the sub
grades. I, I, I don't mind their bigger
slabs. I think they're OK.
I have some Beckett slabs, but II could see that that probably
wouldn't make a big impact because you're going to need
(37:18):
more than 10% of those SGC people to go to one company in
order for that company to be kind of come become viable.
See what what the problem is, isthe perception for the retail
for the resale of cards in thosedifferent slabs.
(37:40):
So if you don't care about that and you like the subgrades, I'd
say go to Beckett. Problem is that there is
certainly a premium of what PSA slab cards sell for over Beckett
slab cards sell for, even thoughit might be the same card,
right? If I took a card in APSA holder
(38:02):
and I cracked it out and I sent it over to Beckett, same card.
And let's just say Beckett gave it the same grade, the same
exact card, it would sell for more in most cases in the PSA
holder than it would in the Becket holder.
That perception of, of the, the turnover of the, of the resale.
(38:26):
I mean, it was, I think it was SGC where recently a lot of the
repackers started saying we're not buying SGC anymore.
They're only buying Beckett and PSA slabs.
They're not buying SGC slabs nowif if repacker.
Now keep in mind I know that SGCis mostly vintage.
(38:49):
It's not modern you know? PSA and BGS are mostly modern
and less vintage, although they have some of each.
I I could see why if the repackers all said no more SGC
that hurts the demand for SGC slabs.
And if the demand for SGC slabs goes down, then the value and
(39:13):
the resale value and the perceived value of SCC slabs
goes down because the demand is less and the resale value is
less. So it kind of depends if if
value matters to you. If it matters a a fairly
significant amount, then I don'treally think that choosing a non
(39:37):
established, non quality, perceived value slab company is
going to be good for you in the long run.
And that's what I think PSA and collectors is banking on.
They don't want you to leave andthey are trying to make it where
(40:04):
you don't have an option. I will continue to say this.
I really think my hope I'm not, I don't think my hope, my hope
is that SCC continues to to stick around, but their numbers
are going down. They're they're the the
repackers are eliminating them from their buying.
(40:28):
These are not good signs if value is something that is
important and for most of us it is.
I have, I, I, I have bought in the last two months, multiple
PSA slabs and multiple SGC slabs.
(40:49):
So I'm not telling you you should do this.
And instead of this, and whenever I give advice, whenever
I give suggestions, it's what I'm doing.
I am still buying SGC slabs. I am still buying PSA slabs.
But I will tell you this, the cards that I buy that are in PSA
holders, I feel much more comfortable buying those cards
(41:13):
in those holders than I do the SGC cards in the SGC holders at
this point. At this point I feel much more
comfortable in, and it's not because I think that one is good
and one is bad or one knows how to grade and one doesn't know
how to grade. It's because other people could
(41:37):
flee from SGC and shun SGC down the road if SGC were to go away.
And that could in turn affect the value.
Which the reason that matters tome is because if I ever want to
liquidate a card, it would be harder to liquidate for what the
(41:57):
card is probably actually worth if it's in that holder.
This is like a chicken and the egg, the a cat chasing its tail.
It's there. We're not going to know the
future you. We would have to be able to tell
the future. We would have to know that SGC
is going away. We would have to know that that
(42:19):
the resale value of SGC starts to go down.
We would have to know that PSA is going to remain as #1 there's
so many unknowns that at the endof the day, what we probably
need to do is we probably just need to keep buying cards that
we like the looks of and and just hoping and supporting SGC
(42:47):
so that they continue to have business.
And though I'm a planner and I'mnot a reactor, in this case, I
have to believe that if a reallysuccessful company like SGC,
who's been successful for literally 3 decades, they've
(43:11):
been a successful company for three decades.
If SGC were to actually go away,I have to believe that the
majority of collectors would still respect those slabs
because it's not like they went out of business because of a
(43:33):
scandal. It's not like they went out of
business because they didn't know what they were doing.
They went out of business because they were purchased.
And if they're purchased, that doesn't mean that the previous
quality was bad. It just means they're
consolidating the two brands. But I also have said, and I also
(43:59):
believe that as time goes by andmore people enter the hobby and
they'll go who's SGC? And people say, oh, that's a
company that's not around anymore, that could become an
issue. My hope, My hope is if PSA were
(44:21):
to shut SGC down, that they would do something to make good
on all those SGC slabs out there, whether it be some sort
of crossover, some sort of new SGC by PSA flip, something to
(44:47):
still honor the legacy of SGC but acknowledge that it's
different. That's my hope.
So I can't give great advice because even though I keep
looking in my crystal ball, I'm not seeing the future.
But I would just say continue totrack it, continue to see the
(45:12):
developments, and if you start to feel one way or another,
start to adjust. I will continue to talk about it
from time to time. Once a month or something, I'll
do a video on updates or maybe every other month when questions
come up in Q and as I give my take with new developments.
(45:35):
But we're just going to have to wait and see and unfortunately,
patience is not something I'm good at.
It's not something most of us are good at.
But in this case, I don't think we have any other choice.
That said, if you have a question for an upcoming
(45:56):
episode, don't hesitate. Simply down below in the
comments, Take a second type outyour question.
I'd love to show it and feature it on an upcoming episode.
What's going on, everybody? All right, this is Wednesday,
Wednesday's Q&A day, which always revolves around your
questions. So if you like the topics, if
you don't like the topics, if you like the questions, I would
say ask a question, Ask it a question that you have as a
topic that you want brought up. Don't hesitate to do that down
(00:34):
below in the comments. I every week when I, I look at
the Wednesday video from the week before to see what new
questions rolled in. And if there aren't enough
questions from that week, I go into the vault and I find a
question that I've had for a while that hasn't been answered
yet. Now the last couple of weeks
I've been a little bit light on questions.
(00:55):
So I don't know if you guys don't like me anymore.
I don't know if you don't like Q&A anymore, but we've been a
little bit light, but we do still have 5 questions this
week. But I will say 2 of the
questions were similar enough that were overlapped enough that
I'm going to combine those two and give one response to the two
(01:17):
questions because a lot of the response that I would give kind
of answers both of them. So we will have 5 questions this
week for responses, for thoughts, for opinions on what I
think about the topics that you bring up or share, whatever the
story is or whatever. Now again, later this week, I've
(01:38):
got at least a couple of episodes coming out. 1 is going
to be my pickups from the month of September, including one of
my favorite pickups in a really,really long time, a card I've
been hunting for over 2 years. Also, we'll have our Off Topic
episode for the month. Remember, we do one on my
(02:02):
channel, 1 on Darren's channel, Return to Collecting.
And this month is my turn to host the guest.
And our guest is going to be none other than Ray from Philly,
one of the nicest and best guys in the hobby, and he will be on.
We will. We actually just recorded that,
but that will post here in the next two or three days.
(02:25):
So be on the lookout for that. And with that, again, questions
for upcoming episodes down belowin the comments.
But let's look at our first question here.
This week's first question says I have a topic suggestion for an
upcoming episode. Which card or cards in your
(02:46):
collection has or have the most sentimental value to you and
why? For me, it's the 1987 Tops Cal
Ripken Junior given to me by my dad when I first started
collecting. That card sparked my interest in
collecting and I have never stopped since.
Thanks for the great videos. Well you know I love this
(03:09):
question. This question is right up my
alley. It is something that I've asked
on Monday episodes before of share a story of a memorable
pickup or memorable purchase or a card that means a lot to you
and to me. The the whole hobby.
It, it really doesn't revolve around the values of the cards.
(03:31):
It doesn't revolve around the rarity of the cards.
It it revolves around the memoryof the cards.
To me, the the memory means as much as anything.
There are cards in my collectionthat for a certain price I would
sell them. I would hey, hate me, love me,
(03:54):
whatever you think. But we have a price for most
things. But then there are some things
where the value of that item to you is so much more than it
would be to anybody else. And, and that is where the
memory comes in. The cards that we remember how
(04:14):
we got it, where we got it, who were we with when we got it.
Those are the most special cardsin our collection.
And when we sometimes will flip through our collection and go,
all right, let's see, which cards have I fallen out of love
with? Which cards am I willing to part
with? Which cards am I willing to
consolidate to get that big cardthat I've been wanting for a
(04:35):
while? My guess is for almost all of
us, the hardest cards to part with are the ones that have a
sentimental value, specifically an important story of how you
obtained it. And I've told the story before
about my Ernie Banks card. In fact, last week ago Monday, I
(04:55):
was on The Odd Couple Life on Tony Lebrik's Channel Southern
Collector 14 with my buddies. And when we were on, Tony asked
us to share about our cornerstone card in our
collection, the card that kind of tells the most about your
collecting. And I shared my 54 TOPS Ernie
(05:18):
Banks. And that definitely is an
important card, a cornerstone card with a very important story
attached to it. But there's a card that means
more to me than that. There's a card that means a lot
more than than to me than that. And I've told the story I think
once on my channel and then I told it once on another channel.
(05:39):
So some of you may have heard this and some of you maybe
haven't heard it, but when I was10 years old, when I was in 3rd
grade, I was on the Red Sox, wasmy Little League team, and I was
the pitcher on the team. I was, I pitched if, if I had
the innings available to pitch, I pitched.
And so I'm a Red Sox pitcher andit's about 198788.
(06:05):
And before you know it, I becomea Rodger Clemens fan because he
is an absolute stud at the time he is on the Red Sox, he is a
pitcher. So I identified so much with
Rodger Clemens and I, he, he became my guy for baseball.
Now, some of you love Clemens, some of you hate Clemens.
(06:27):
That's OK. He will always have a very
special place in my heart. I've seen him pitch live many
times. I thought saw him throw a
shutout at the Oakland Coliseum and I followed him, him closely.
Well, at this time in about now,1988 or 89, when I'm heavily
into cards and I'm heavily into Rodger Clemens, I went to a card
(06:51):
show and there were not a ton ofcard shows at the time.
But one of the main card shows was a card show in Concord, CA,
which was about 40 minutes away from us.
And they held it in like an ElksLodge or one of those sort of,
you know, higher Order of the Elk or whatever.
You know what these clubs for older retired guys where they go
(07:14):
and hang out and one of the members of the club was a card
collector and a card dealer. And so he would put on these
card shows and what he did to hewasn't trying to make money, he
was just trying to create this community event.
And so we would go and what would happen is when you came in
the show, it was like a dollar or two to get in.
(07:36):
And when you got in, you would get a ticket.
You know, like those tickets where it's got the two the keep
this coupon, the ticket. They you know, you split them
down the middle, you pull it offand then one goes into the
raffle and one goes, you hang onto and you you try to win.
So we would go to this card Showtime and time again and I
(07:57):
never won. But the the amazing thing is
this is in about 198889 and the raffle prizes was every hour on
the hour they raffled off a $100voucher that could be used in
the show. Basically they were taking all
the entry costs for the people with the tickets at the door and
(08:20):
they were turning around and giving it back to the customers,
which had to be good for the dealers because then the dealers
had they had they had money kindof going around the room.
And so we would, you know, wait for an hour and Nope, didn't win
next hour. Nope, didn't win.
You know when we would stay for 3-4 hours at these shows because
(08:40):
this was sort of like the prime card shows that we would attend.
Well, about the third or fourth time we attended the show, my
brother and I kind of came up with this idea of, well, a lot
because what they would do is they would read the numbers and
people say, oh, that person is not here anymore.
You know, they wait. Nobody would come up and claim
(09:01):
it, that person must have left. Read another number, nobody
would claim it. That person must have left.
So somewhere in my head, I said what we need to do, since we're
just hanging out at the show, isas people are leaving, we need
to say, hey, are you leaving? Yes, we're leaving.
Would it be OK if I have your raffle ticket?
(09:23):
Well sure. Here you go.
So before long my brother and I had about 2025 raffle tickets
each and so they would read the number and we'd have them in
number order and we'd be going down seeing if any of them
matched because we were collecting the tickets of the
people leaving for the day. Well, at that time, my prized
(09:49):
card, my dream card, my absolutedream card was the 84 Fleer
Roger Clemens Fleer update card.I wanted that card so bad, but
it was so far out of reach because the card in Beckett was
$80.00. And at the time, if Beckett said
it was $80, you'd go to a card show, they were asking $80.
(10:11):
That's just the way that it worked then, right?
I mean, a lot of us remember those times.
So eventually we, we, my number gets pulled and I, I run up to
the front to the guy at the speaker.
I give him the ticket, he checksit.
Sure enough I won the $100 voucher and I am like so nervous
(10:37):
so beside myself and and I had been at the show all day so I
had already found and spotted the 1/19/84 FLIR update Roger
Clemens that was in the room for$80.00.
So I immediately ran to my dad, showed my dad that I won, which
(10:58):
I'm sure he knew because he probably saw the whole thing
transpire at the show and he said what are you going to buy?
I said I'm buying the Clemens. I ran straight over the table
and I hand over my $100. They were in $20 increments.
I handed him four of the $20 increment vouchers for the
(11:21):
Clemens card, and this right here is that Clemens card.
This is the exact one that I gotthat day that I got from the
vouchers from the raffle. Now at the time, again, $80.00
was like it's probably like 4 or$500 now.
(11:43):
It's just like so far out of my price range.
I would show up to a show with like maybe 20 bucks, 15 or 20
bucks. So to be able to land an $80
card, which was my absolute dream card is something I'll
never forget. And this is the exact one.
(12:05):
Again, this was probably about 19891990.
So we're talking 3540 years ago that I got this card and there
is not an amount of money that Iwould well, is there?
I can't imagine letting this card go.
It would have to be like $500,000 for me to to, It would
(12:30):
have to be money where I could like go quit my job.
But this card is the most special card in my collection.
And I have a lot of special cards.
But this is #1 because of the story and because of the memory
that I have attached to the card.
And that to me is the most important part of the hobby.
(12:52):
It's not owning the cards. It's the story of acquiring the
cards and saving for the cards and planning for the cards and
hunting for the cards and then finding the right one and making
the deal happen. And then you end up with
something like this. This next one says, hey, Greg,
I've been vacationing in Hawaii for a few weeks, so I haven't
(13:16):
asked you a new question for a while.
Here's one for you. Do you think it would be a great
idea to start a spreadsheet or any other way to document your
inventory of cards and their values to make it easier for
your loved ones to deal with thefallout if something were to
happen to one of us collectors? Is there a website that you know
(13:41):
of and would recommend that can put all this information in and
compensate for the fluctuation of values over time?
I am at the age where I am thinking of my kids and what
they will have to deal with whenI am gone.
Any advice would be appreciated.OK, so I think personally one of
(14:05):
the things that I think is really important is financial
planning, future planning, estate planning.
I think that's really important stuff because if you don't plan
for the future and you react to the future, you're not going to
be prepared for the future and things aren't going to go the
way that you want them to go. And unfortunately, we don't know
(14:29):
if tomorrow will be here for each and every one of us.
And so if you have a decent amount of value in your
collection, I'm assuming that you want your family members to
be able to reap the benefits of that.
Now, my kids don't want my cards.
My wife doesn't want my cards. But I do hope that when I am
(14:52):
gone that I can leave them some money that would allow their
life to be more comfortable, allow their life to have some
less stress. And so leaving them instructions
or information to be able to liquidate the collection that I
(15:12):
have is something that I absolutely am planning to do and
I'm working on doing. One of the arguments I have made
for a long time is people say, why do you even need to get your
cards graded? Who cares?
Is it if it's just to authenticate them?
And one of my arguments has been, I think that cards that
(15:33):
have a decent amount of value, you need to get graded because
by grading them it makes it easier to sell them.
And it provides information about the quality, about the,
the type, about the player, about the, IT provides
information that makes it easierto liquidate.
And though you say I know all about my cards, I know that
(15:55):
these are worth money and these aren't worth money.
And these are worth a little bit.
And that's worth a little bit. But if, if somebody can just
simply go into eBay and type in whatever's on the flip,
including the grade, they know what the card is worth.
And to me, I want to make it easier for them.
(16:16):
So I believe one of the biggest reasons I believe in grading is
because it makes it easier to liquidate, not necessarily for
me, but for whoever ends up withthem someday.
Because remember, all of our cards will eventually be sold by
someone, and we want that someone to have an idea of what
(16:36):
they're worth. Now you doing it in an Excel
spreadsheet could be a little bit cumbersome.
It wouldn't include pictures, itwouldn't take into account the
changes in values. So I have said now for a few
(16:56):
weeks, because I came out a few weeks ago and I said I've tried
VCP vintage card prices as a card comping app.
I have tried Market Movers as a card comping app, both of which
you can enter your collection into the system and it will
(17:17):
track the changes and fluctuations in the prices.
And I came out a couple of months ago and I told you guys
that I am all in with card ladder.
And what happened was I had cardladder, I had Market Movers, I
had VCP, but card ladder had everything that I wanted.
(17:37):
Card ladder had the best, the best ability to comp in my
opinion. It had the the easiest way to
check prices and and find cards.It was far less cumbersome.
It was easy to find pop reports,all of that.
And it has a fantastic spot where it's, it's called your
(18:00):
collection on the app and you hit the collection.
And once you hit the collection,you can very, very easily upload
your cards into the app. So if it's APSA graded card, you
just add and then you type in the the PSA serial number, it
finds it in the PSA database, ituploads it, it finds the value
(18:24):
and as the values change up and down it, it tracks it.
I mean, it's absolutely fantastic.
And a lot of people have said, oh, Greg, you know, it's like 15
or $20.00 a month. I understand that.
But to me, and I live in California, I don't know what
things cost elsewhere, but if I,Greg went to McDonald's today
(18:49):
and got a Big Mac meal, if I gota Big Mac meal at McDonald's, it
would be about 15 bucks. That that's about what it would
be $15 in today's day and age or$20 in today's day and age,
whatever the price is, is very, very little in my opinion.
(19:09):
And people say, I already have, you know, Disney subscription
and Netflix and Hulu and, and this and that.
And, and I understand that. I do understand that.
But the way I look at it is thisis my hobby that I spend a lot
of time on. But also, this is a way it's
it's it's like a way to protect your family against getting
(19:33):
ripped off when you someday havethem sell the collection.
Because if they can get into your card ladder app and they
can go into the collection, theyknow exactly what you have and
exactly what everything's worth as it goes up, as it goes down
and everything in between. So in am I sponsored by card
(19:55):
ladder? Yes, yes, I am absolutely saying
that. But I've also told you guys, the
only companies that I would be sponsored by under any
circumstance are the companies that I actually use and the
actually that I believe in. And card ladder is the best
option. So again, I've mentioned this a
(20:17):
few times, I'll continue to mention it from time to time.
It's at the end, at the outro ofevery episode but the.
Promo code Midlife lets you try it lets you try Card Ladder for
free for a month or if you go onCard Ladder's website, you can
try Card Ladder for a week, but if you use my promo code, you
(20:37):
can try it for a month. The other thing that you could
do is you could sign up for CardLadder for a year and it takes
$20 off the price for the year. So it saves you a few dollars.
I think if you just go to their website, I think, I don't know,
maybe it's 5 or $10 off for a year.
So you get the most off. Now I negotiated those things
(20:58):
when Carl Ladder and I decided, hey, let's work together, let's
talk about this. I said you got to give me
something that's going to help out the people that are viewers
of my channel. If I'm going to suggest this to
them, you have to make an extra good deal for them.
And they said, OK, what do you want?
And I said I want a month trial instead of a week.
(21:19):
They said OK. I said I want more money off
through my promo code than the other promo codes.
And they said OK so $20 off or afree trial for a month.
Try it for a month. If you don't like it then get
rid of it. But you will absolutely like it.
(21:40):
So my answer to this is a very simple solution.
You sign up for card ladder. You now have the best card app,
the best card comping app, you have the best research tool, and
you have a place to upload all of your collection.
Store it and it tracks the values for you and load it onto
(22:03):
your spouse's phone. Put the password in, have it
saved at any time they can checkand see it and have access to
your collection. This to me is an absolute no
brainer. So that's your answer.
Easy done deal. I really think you won't regret
(22:23):
doing that. Question.
How does 1 organically grow their network within the hobby
with no social media? I understand it's as simple as
saying hello and starting a conversation at a card show, but
vendors talk to so many people during a show and others seem to
(22:45):
be to themselves. May you give some examples of
making friends within the hobby before YouTube or connecting
through social media or purchasing a card from a vendor?
OK, this is you've painted me into a corner with the
parameters in which I can make suggestions here.
(23:07):
The first thing I would say is social media is actually really
good for social networking. Like that's the whole point of
social media is that you can network with other people with
similar interests. And so I, I kind of say, well,
why not use social media? I think Facebook, if you're a
(23:30):
card collector and you're not onFacebook and in a bunch of the
Facebook groups, I don't understand why not.
I don't. I just, I, I don't understand
why not. If you're not on Instagram, I
don't understand why not. Now let me say this.
I am not a fan of social media. I think that things that people
post on social media say on social media, the fake
(23:53):
information on social media is not good.
It is it is corrupting. It is, I don't have social media
for personal use. I mean, I think I, I years and
years ago I had, I had like a Facebook account and an
Instagram account and I literally shut them down like 5
(24:17):
or 6 years ago because it was like it was just bad.
And then I set up accounts for midlife for, for the channel.
And I think when I did that, it made those other ones active.
So if you've ever found me like on Facebook or Instagram, like
my personal account and you're like, why isn't he responding?
It's because I, I literally don't open them or check them
(24:39):
because I just think that it's like bad.
So I'm assuming that's what you're saying.
What I would say is have an account just for the hobby, just
for networking purposes. There's really no reason if you
don't want your name out there where people can find you or
something, put some nickname. I mean, Tony is southern
(25:02):
collector 14. He's he's southern collector 14.
You know, I'm midlife cards on Instagram and Facebook.
I, I mean you, I would, I would use social media because that is
what it's best for. But the that's not your
question. Your question is besides social
(25:23):
media. I think when I was growing up,
the way that we met people, the best was a couple of ways #1
hanging out at card shops, goingto the card shop, not going in
for 20 minutes and then leaving.But going in and, and hanging
(25:44):
out and talking to the other customers and talking to the
owner and talking to the workers, looking at the cards,
making deals. You, you can start to
organically grow some form of a network through that.
But I think from, from my memory, if memory serves me
(26:05):
best, the way that I've made thethe most connections is at card
shows. And I know what you're saying.
You're saying what card shows there's, you know, 500 customers
that go up to a dealer? How are they going to Remember
Me? How am I going to know them?
I would say because what most people do is they meet them and
(26:28):
then they connect to them on Facebook and Instagram and then
they message them, Hey, good seeing you at the show today.
You know, if you come across this card and this card, let me
know. You could make business cards,
you could make business cards. You could e-mail the person when
you get home, get their e-mail address, give them your card.
(26:49):
Hey, remember I'm the guy that gave you the business card
today. That could work.
But some of the best ways that we've really gotten to know
other people in the hobby is is by setting up as a dealer.
So like when you set up as a dealer, there's like this few
(27:13):
hour period where you're all kind of setting up and you're
all kind of looking out for eachother.
And you got to go around and youlook at other people's tables
and you say, Oh yeah, you know, my table's over there.
And people are other dealers arebuying from you and you're
buying from other dealers. And there's that is a really,
really good way to make a memorable lasting connection to
(27:37):
someone. Now, depending on where you
live, sometimes the dealer cost is or the table cost is really
expensive. But I mean, if you could get a
table for 100 bucks, maybe sell $100 worth of stuff that you're
not interested in, break even. But then you have a day or two
where you're making connections with other people in the hobby.
(27:59):
That's the best way. Because once you form a core
group, that core group is going to kind of spread.
Because if you connect with fivepeople and each of those people
have 5 people they're connected with.
And you say, hey, do you know anybody who is, you know, sells
T2O sixes and this guy goes, well, I have these two friends
and then that those guys, they have each have another guy and
(28:21):
all of a sudden you've got a connection.
So it does require some work. And a lot of us in the hobby are
quirky. Let's face it, there's a reason
that we're in the hobby or there's a reason that we study
cards that we, you know, look through our cards on our own.
A lot of us are kind of OCD types, myself very much
(28:46):
included. A lot of us are introverted
types because you can do this hobby independently, you don't
have to do it as a group. And so a lot of us have some
quirkiness and a lot of other people are in the same situation
as you where they're, they want to have a few hobby buddies, but
(29:07):
they don't know how to make hobby buddies.
So the best way to make a hobby buddy is to try to connect with
other people because I think those other people are looking
to connect to, they're just not really comfortable at how to do
that. So it's sort of like, you know,
in elementary school when there's a new kid at the school
(29:28):
that shows up and you say, hey, you want to eat in our group,
you know, at lunch and they go, OK.
And now all of a sudden they're a friend in your group.
It's just like that. But if you're anti social media,
I would say do it for the hobby only.
Don't do it for personal use, for connecting with family
members and friends. And I literally have most of if
(29:53):
not all of my family members blocked on my social media
accounts because I I don't have any interest in finding things
out and and seeing posts that they make that are going to
irritate me. So I just don't go there.
So that's my take I hope it helps.
(30:15):
But I would say maybe make cards, business cards, hand them
out, follow up with dealers at shows, e-mail them, start course
respondents with them. Try social media for the hobby
only. And, and I think setting up as a
dealer and just trying to sell off some of the stuff that maybe
(30:36):
you're not that interested in anymore, but that could help you
at least break even on the table.
If you are kind of active and social when you set up as a
dealer, you definitely would make a handful of connections
that way too. So those are my suggestions.
I hope they're good ones, but those are some things that I've
done before YouTube that I thinkhave worked.
(31:02):
This one says since SCC is pretty much in shambles slowly.
I'm not a fan of PSA. If we are stranded with limited
options, why don't we switch to Beckett?
One thing I love about Beckett is their subgrades.
At least we know what's wrong with the card itself when we
look at subgrades. And a similar and related
(31:26):
question says. I think the real question at
this rate is if collectors really shuts down SGC, what do
people do with their current SGCslabs and who do they go to for
grading? I would think the majority would
choose CGC or BGS, but even if aminority pick PSA, it's a win
(31:49):
for collectors as the revenue will be as good or better due to
the higher priced and up charges.
And I think that's what collectors saw when wanting to
squeeze SGC down. All right, again, these are the
4th and 5th topics questions andI just kind of lumped them
(32:10):
together because they're very, very similar.
And I think that both of these make some really good points
and, and all of us don't know about the unknown.
You know, I did a video a week and a half ago or so about just
listing the facts of what was happening with SGC and it kind
(32:31):
of provides some clues on where they might be going.
I am going to continue to say that I hope that SGC is around
indefinitely. I like SGCI literally have APSA
order that I just, I'm sorry, I literally have an SGC order that
(32:52):
I just got back. In fact, I'll probably do like
an unboxing video and, and show how it went because there were
definitely some interesting things that happened.
And I, I think there might be some, I think, I think things
that SGC are maybe changing. I'll just say that, but watch my
(33:14):
video, you'll see what I mean. But I, I think that that's the
question is if SGC goes away, because I think most of us, a
lot of us, not most of us, a lotof us that have been cool with
SGC will continue to be cool with SGC as long as SGC is still
(33:34):
around. So the question really boils
down to if collectors, the parent company were to end SGC
and then try to divert all of the SGC people to PSA and people
don't want to do PSA, then what?That's the question.
(33:55):
And and also what the question is, is what does that do to the
PSA slabs that we have now? I mean, I have a couple of
pretty big cards. Some of the bigger cards in my
collection are in, did I say PSAslabs in the SGC slabs?
Some of my bigger cards are in SGC slabs.
(34:17):
So what happens to those cards 5-10 years into the future if
SGC goes away? Again, if SGC doesn't go away, I
I think this is a moot point forthe most part.
So let me try to share my thoughts.
First, it depends on why you area collector and it depends on
(34:40):
how much value matters to you, if at all.
And it partly depends on do you think you might be selling or
reselling at some point. If you are the type of collector
that once a card comes into yourcollection, it is never leaving
your collection until you are gone, then I think you can make
(35:05):
the argument that your SGC slabsversus your PSA slabs or or who
to go with. I don't know how much it matters
as long as you're enjoying the card.
Now do I think that it could potentially affect the value of
cards in SGC slabs? Yes.
Let me get to that in a second though.
(35:27):
So I think if, if people are going to pick graders now
because remember, we, I mean, some of us weren't back in the
hobby yet. Some of us were still in the
hobby. But there was a time, and it
wasn't crazy long ago where the number one grading company was
Beckett. It was the number one grading
(35:50):
company. The premium was on Beckett's
labs, not PSA slabs. And so you know, you know,
especially with modern, especially like APSA 10 versus a
ABGS 9.5, the premium was on the9.5 and and that was real, that
(36:10):
actually happened. So things can change now, should
you go with Beckett instead of CGC or PSA or whoever else that
you'd consider maybe. I mean, it really boils down to
what is the reason you collect? How much does value matter and
(36:33):
what does the what does the slabeven?
What is the importance of the slab for you?
The problem is going to be that the perceived value of some
holders and some grades is not equal.
That's the problem. So if, if you know, 10% of
(36:57):
people who are at SGC go over toBeckett and they start getting
Beckett grades, which by the way, I agree, I like the sub
grades. I, I, I don't mind their bigger
slabs. I think they're OK.
I have some Beckett slabs, but II could see that that probably
wouldn't make a big impact because you're going to need
(37:18):
more than 10% of those SGC people to go to one company in
order for that company to be kind of come become viable.
See what what the problem is, isthe perception for the retail
for the resale of cards in thosedifferent slabs.
(37:40):
So if you don't care about that and you like the subgrades, I'd
say go to Beckett. Problem is that there is
certainly a premium of what PSA slab cards sell for over Beckett
slab cards sell for, even thoughit might be the same card,
right? If I took a card in APSA holder
(38:02):
and I cracked it out and I sent it over to Beckett, same card.
And let's just say Beckett gave it the same grade, the same
exact card, it would sell for more in most cases in the PSA
holder than it would in the Becket holder.
That perception of, of the, the turnover of the, of the resale.
(38:26):
I mean, it was, I think it was SGC where recently a lot of the
repackers started saying we're not buying SGC anymore.
They're only buying Beckett and PSA slabs.
They're not buying SGC slabs nowif if repacker.
Now keep in mind I know that SGCis mostly vintage.
(38:49):
It's not modern you know? PSA and BGS are mostly modern
and less vintage, although they have some of each.
I I could see why if the repackers all said no more SGC
that hurts the demand for SGC slabs.
And if the demand for SGC slabs goes down, then the value and
(39:13):
the resale value and the perceived value of SCC slabs
goes down because the demand is less and the resale value is
less. So it kind of depends if if
value matters to you. If it matters a a fairly
significant amount, then I don'treally think that choosing a non
(39:37):
established, non quality, perceived value slab company is
going to be good for you in the long run.
And that's what I think PSA and collectors is banking on.
They don't want you to leave andthey are trying to make it where
(40:04):
you don't have an option. I will continue to say this.
I really think my hope I'm not, I don't think my hope, my hope
is that SCC continues to to stick around, but their numbers
are going down. They're they're the the
repackers are eliminating them from their buying.
(40:28):
These are not good signs if value is something that is
important and for most of us it is.
I have, I, I, I have bought in the last two months, multiple
PSA slabs and multiple SGC slabs.
(40:49):
So I'm not telling you you should do this.
And instead of this, and whenever I give advice, whenever
I give suggestions, it's what I'm doing.
I am still buying SGC slabs. I am still buying PSA slabs.
But I will tell you this, the cards that I buy that are in PSA
holders, I feel much more comfortable buying those cards
(41:13):
in those holders than I do the SGC cards in the SGC holders at
this point. At this point I feel much more
comfortable in, and it's not because I think that one is good
and one is bad or one knows how to grade and one doesn't know
how to grade. It's because other people could
(41:37):
flee from SGC and shun SGC down the road if SGC were to go away.
And that could in turn affect the value.
Which the reason that matters tome is because if I ever want to
liquidate a card, it would be harder to liquidate for what the
(41:57):
card is probably actually worth if it's in that holder.
This is like a chicken and the egg, the a cat chasing its tail.
It's there. We're not going to know the
future you. We would have to be able to tell
the future. We would have to know that SGC
is going away. We would have to know that that
(42:19):
the resale value of SGC starts to go down.
We would have to know that PSA is going to remain as #1 there's
so many unknowns that at the endof the day, what we probably
need to do is we probably just need to keep buying cards that
we like the looks of and and just hoping and supporting SGC
(42:47):
so that they continue to have business.
And though I'm a planner and I'mnot a reactor, in this case, I
have to believe that if a reallysuccessful company like SGC,
who's been successful for literally 3 decades, they've
(43:11):
been a successful company for three decades.
If SGC were to actually go away,I have to believe that the
majority of collectors would still respect those slabs
because it's not like they went out of business because of a
(43:33):
scandal. It's not like they went out of
business because they didn't know what they were doing.
They went out of business because they were purchased.
And if they're purchased, that doesn't mean that the previous
quality was bad. It just means they're
consolidating the two brands. But I also have said, and I also
(43:59):
believe that as time goes by andmore people enter the hobby and
they'll go who's SGC? And people say, oh, that's a
company that's not around anymore, that could become an
issue. My hope, My hope is if PSA were
(44:21):
to shut SGC down, that they would do something to make good
on all those SGC slabs out there, whether it be some sort
of crossover, some sort of new SGC by PSA flip, something to
(44:47):
still honor the legacy of SGC but acknowledge that it's
different. That's my hope.
So I can't give great advice because even though I keep
looking in my crystal ball, I'm not seeing the future.
But I would just say continue totrack it, continue to see the
(45:12):
developments, and if you start to feel one way or another,
start to adjust. I will continue to talk about it
from time to time. Once a month or something, I'll
do a video on updates or maybe every other month when questions
come up in Q and as I give my take with new developments.
(45:35):
But we're just going to have to wait and see and unfortunately,
patience is not something I'm good at.
It's not something most of us are good at.
But in this case, I don't think we have any other choice.
That said, if you have a question for an upcoming
(45:56):
episode, don't hesitate. Simply down below in the
comments, Take a second type outyour question.
I'd love to show it and feature it on an upcoming episode.
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