Coaching Clinic

With these posts about the Poughkeepsie cabinet and trimmed cards, I would like to ask for some pointers on shopping for cards. What should someone new to the hobby look out for? It appears that doctored cards can get past the grading companies, but are graded cards still the safest route to travel.
John

Hi,
I am generally less than happy with grading companies. However, until you are comfortable in authentication and alteration identification (if this ever occurs), slabbed cards should yield a 95+% certainty for you. With (I understand) a guarantee to improve that value to approximately 100%. Of course, this applys to the top companies only.
Good luck, and please bring any uncertainties and questions here before you buy.
Gil

Hi John

For the most part, you'll be safe buying cards in SGC holders. Very few (if any) doctored cards make into a SGC slab. The same could be said for BVG too. With that said, one shouldn't rely entirely on the determinations of a third party grader. Asking a few people in the hobby whom you trust can go a long way in that regard. Posting questions here is also a good way of eliciting some additional opinions on a card that you're not 100% sure about. There are many here who would be happy to help in whatever way they can.

One thing I've noticed is that with the remarkable growth of "professional" grading companies over the past decade, many collectors have become paranoid of ungraded cards. The mentality is something like "well if this card is not slabbed, then there has to be something wrong with it. Must be trimmed or altered". Instead of examining the card and studying the issue, many seem to come to these conclusions right away simply because the card hasn't been slabbed. This works well for some collectors who get bargains on raw cards as a result, but in general, I think it's kind of unfortunate because it prevents many collectors from educating themselves.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, there are still many, many prewar cards being discovered, and many old time collectors who haven't bought into the idea of "professional" grading. While some skepticism is always beneficial when viewing a raw card, don't assume off hand that there's anything wrong with it simply because it isn't graded. Keep asking questions, handling cards, and learning about the different issues, and before long you'll have confidence in your own discriminating eye when shopping for vintage cards.

Ben

ben not sure about the current beckett regime...but a couple years ago there were a few altered cards getting through in bvg holders. but if the card is legit it was graded very strictly, which i like. a few of my favs were in bvg holders.

i would say nowadays sgc is clearly on top for prewars (A), beckett/psa (B) about the same although psa is looser imo. gai (1-B)doesn't need to do much to catch up to the 2nd tier.

like everything in life experience is always good in judging for yourself...sgc is not always the final authority like some put them to be.

Is GAI still around? Last I heard they were in some serious trouble on one level or another.

Jay