Latest / Sports Card Clubhouse / MidLife Sports Cards Q & A - October 8, 2025

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MidLife Sports Cards Q & A - October 8, 2025 · Sports Card Clubhouse

0:10
What's going on, everybody? Happy Wednesday.
0:14
Halfway through another week, and Wednesday is Q&A day.
0:18
Remember, as always, if you have a question for an upcoming
0:21
episode down below in the comments, simply ask your
0:23
question. I had one question this week
0:26
came out of the vault. What's the vault?
0:29
Those are the questions that have been kind of in there for a
0:33
while and for whatever reason, I haven't gotten to them because I
0:37
only had a few questions last week.
0:39
So again, don't hesitate if you have a question or a topic that
0:43
you'd like me to bring up. It doesn't necessarily have to
0:46
be a question. It could be a what do you think
0:49
about, you know, which I guess is a question, but kind of just
0:52
a, a topic discussion, discussion starter sort of
0:55
thing. So again, as always, ask those
0:58
questions down below. You know, I had a lot of fun
1:02
Monday night. Tony, my boy Southern collector
1:05
14 guys channel. Seems like just yesterday he
1:10
started his channel one year anniversary.
1:13
That was a lot of fun. Thank you for the people who
1:15
showed up to check that out for the live.
1:18
If you didn't make the live that I hope that you'll consider
1:22
attending or not attending. I hope you'll consider watching
1:25
the rerun of that over on his channel again.
1:28
Southern Collector 14 a lot going on this week.
1:32
Have a fun video, and usually I don't post videos on Thursdays,
1:37
but I have a video coming out tomorrow with a special guest.
1:43
We're going to be talking about something I think that will be
1:46
fun for you to consider. I think a lot of us get in sort
1:51
of a routine or even a rut of how we buy cards, how we add
1:56
cards to our collection, and we don't consider some of the other
2:00
options that are out there. So I have a guest, a special
2:03
guest, a recognizable guest. You'll know who he is and that
2:06
will be on with me tomorrow. And we're going to look at, we
2:09
already recorded. It was a lot of fun.
2:12
We are going to be looking at some ways to buy cards that a
2:16
lot of people haven't really taken advantage of.
2:19
And we're going to look in detail at one of those, one of
2:23
those opportunities, one of those options.
2:26
So check that out tomorrow. All right.
2:30
Now let's go ahead and take a look at our first of five
2:33
questions. As always right here.
2:36
This first one says, hey, Greg, I have a Rube Marquard T2O6 in
2:42
an old Gai graded 3 slab. My question is, do I keep it in
2:47
the old slab or do I crack it and send it into PSA or STC?
2:52
I'll probably be posting it in your September pickup of the
2:55
month. Thanks.
3:00
All right, so a Gai slab. What do we make of a Gai slab?
3:06
Well, Gai was a grading company with or one of the head graders
3:12
from PSA came over, started his own label.
3:15
He then started grading. It was a fairly reputable
3:18
company. And then there was a scandal
3:20
that basically took them down. And the scandal had to do with
3:23
trimming. And So what happened was there
3:25
were some trimmed cards that were not being marked as
3:29
trimmed. They were getting grades and
3:33
once that kind of came out, it kind of took him down.
3:36
Now, does that mean every card was graded that was graded by
3:39
Gai is trimmed? Of course not.
3:42
I, I'm sure that most aren't, but having the Gai slab would
3:49
lead some people to kind of be a little, maybe, maybe a little
3:55
hesitant to buy a card. Now, that doesn't mean that this
3:59
card is trimmed by any means. In fact, on a card as old as
4:03
AT2OT2O6, you can kind of tell by the sharpness of the, of the
4:08
corners in the edges if it's original or if it's not.
4:11
So I guess the, the question comes down to, and, and again,
4:17
whenever I give advice, I'm not telling someone else what they
4:20
should do. What I'm going to explain is
4:23
what I would do if I was in this sort of situation.
4:28
If the card was a really expensive card, like thousands
4:34
of dollars or over $1000, you kind of need to have it graded.
4:41
And the reason you need to have it graded.
4:43
For me, and I know that this is a big thing, a lot of people say
4:46
you don't need to have cards graded.
4:47
The only reason we need cards graded is for authentication
4:51
purposes. I kind of disagree.
4:54
I think that cards being graded make them more liquid.
4:58
They make them easier to sell. They're an easier asset to know
5:01
what you have. So someday this card will be
5:04
sold, right? Someday.
5:06
And whoever is selling it, you want to be able to make that
5:11
sale as easy as possible. And having it graded does that.
5:15
Now people will also say, well you could just look at a picture
5:19
of a card and the thing about a graded card is there are things
5:23
you cannot see on a card when you see a 2 dimensional picture
5:29
of the card. And what a grading opinion does
5:33
is it provides additional information.
5:35
So it makes it way easier to sell a card and get its actual
5:41
value when you're doing a long distance deal and an eBay deal,
5:46
a Facebook posting, somebody bidding through an auction house
5:51
when it's ungraded, again, not in person, but you know, through
5:57
a long distance through, through an electronic deal.
6:01
It, it provides information which provides Peace of Mind for
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the potential buyer and in turn will result in usually more bids
6:13
on the card, a higher sale value of the card.
6:17
Sorry this COVID or cold or whatever is lingering.
6:23
So if the card, I would say if the card from in in my life, if
6:29
the card is over about 3-4 hundred dollars, I'm usually
6:33
going to get it graded. And if I had it in a Gai slab, I
6:38
would want to move it to APSA or SGC slab.
6:42
If the card was under 2 or $300, I would probably just crack it
6:47
out and leave it raw. That's what I would probably do
6:51
again, 'cause what that does is it hurts when you sell, but if
6:57
it's only like a hundred $200 card, it's not a life changing
7:00
card. Sorry, I went into a coffee and
7:03
fit. I'll probably have to do that
7:04
again. But if it's not a life changing
7:07
card, if it's not a huge expensive card, then I would say
7:11
it's OK to just enjoy it ungraded.
7:14
So if I have a car that says $70 card, it's in agai slab.
7:19
What I'm probably going to do is crack it out, put it in a semi
7:23
rigid and enjoy it that way. If the card is, you know, 3-4
7:28
hundred dollar card or more than I want it to be in a grading
7:32
company slab. I want it to be slabbed
7:35
personally, and I want it to be in a slab that is going to yield
7:38
the most money down the road in the future for whoever sells it.
7:43
So for me, I personally still trust SGC the most in regards to
7:52
the consistency of the grading, the look of a vintage card, and
7:56
again I'm talking vintage cards. This is AT2O6.
7:59
This is a pre war card. With pre war cards especially, I
8:02
personally prefer SGC and I feel that PSA is is really good at
8:10
grading modern more than SGC and I think SGC at at least
8:15
historically in my experience has been vintage cards better.
8:19
So what I would do with a pre war card that is like, I mean
8:25
I'm guessing this mark card it's T2O6 and a three.
8:29
It's probably like a 506 hundred dollar card is my guess.
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So I would want it in a slab. I would, I would, I would send
8:38
that card, I would crack that card out and I would send it to
8:41
SGC. What I have found in my opinion
8:46
is grading companies kind of look down on other grading
8:50
companies that they see is are inferior.
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So if you sent a Gai slab over to PSAI, just have a feeling
8:59
that they would find more faults with it than the three grade
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because it, it, it just seems like, it seems like companies
9:12
look down on other companies like, well, if they said it's a
9:14
three, well, there's no way we would give it a three.
9:17
We're going to give it less than that because we know what we're
9:19
doing. That's just kind of like the
9:21
feeling that I get now. I don't really have any reason
9:24
to think that I don't. I, I've not had a lot of
9:29
situations where I tried to cross cards.
9:31
I will say that a lot of the times I have tried to cross
9:34
cards, the cards didn't go up. I've had times that it it went
9:40
up a half a point. I've had times where I put my
9:43
minimum grade and they wouldn't grade it.
9:46
But it it, it feels to me like if I tried to send that in in
9:53
the slab to PSA or SGC that it wouldn't get a three.
9:59
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
10:11
being difficult and long winded, but because it has value, I
10:16
would want it in a slab. I would break it out of the slab
10:20
so that the grader is not seeing what another company has done or
10:26
what company did it. I would crack it out.
10:30
I would send it to SGC and I would get it re slapped.
10:35
This one says. I'm kind of in the same
10:37
situation. I love the old vintage cards a
10:41
lot but a lot of them have become a little too expensive
10:45
for me. So I've been looking at early
10:48
80s tops and Fleer and donrous cards graded in 10s which I
10:52
can't afford. But I know the upside is not as
10:56
good as those cards as they are on the old cards, but I do like
11:01
those cards and that I'm thinking about the design and
11:05
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
11:13
going to probably say what a lot of you anticipate that I'm going
11:17
to say. There is not a right way to do
11:21
the hobby. I, I really believe that.
11:24
I do not believe there's a wrong way to do the hobby.
11:27
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
11:35
a a positive in our life, a good way to Direct Energy and stay
11:43
away from negativity and and bring us joy in whatever brings
11:47
you joy. Now, if looking at pretty cards
11:51
brings you joy, buy pretty cards.
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If sparkly cards bring you joy, buy sparkly cards.
11:58
If old historic cards bring you joy, buy old historic cards.
12:02
It sounds to me like what you're explaining is you like cards
12:08
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.
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So I guess the thing you got to look at is, are, are you asking
12:22
the question from an investment point of view or are you asking
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the question from a hobby point of view?
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If you're asking any anybody anything about from a hobby
12:32
point of view, it doesn't matter what anybody thinks.
12:34
It doesn't matter what I think. It doesn't matter what any other
12:38
channel or any friend or any dealer, none of that matters.
12:42
The only thing that matters is that you're buying things that
12:46
make you happy and I I genuinely believe that you should be
12:52
buying what makes you happy. Now, if somebody was asking the
12:56
question of should I buy 80s cards instead of vintage cards
13:03
and 80s cards in 10s because are they a better investment than
13:08
vintage cards, that's a different question.
13:11
That is a completely different question.
13:14
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
13:21
the joy of the hobby and not a person who's looking at
13:25
potential upside. That said, I do think there are
13:30
some cards from the 80s that there is a bit of a nostalgia
13:36
kick that has made some of those cards jump.
13:41
There have been some cards that have jumped in value from the
13:46
80s over the and 70s over the last few years.
13:51
And I think a lot of that is because people who are starting
13:55
to get to the point in their life where they have a little
13:57
bit more money, a little bit more income, their their kids
14:01
are starting to get out of the house.
14:03
People like my age in their late 40s and early 50s are wanting to
14:07
relive their childhood. And So what they're wanting to
14:10
do is buy cards from their childhood.
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That's what I think a lot of people are doing.
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And I think some of those cards have gone up.
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Now. There are some cards that are
14:20
never really going to go up that much because the, the supply
14:24
just is so much greater than the possible demand.
14:30
But then there are some cards like the the, the Billy Ripken F
14:34
face card, that card has gone way up over the last couple of
14:38
years. Why would that card go way up?
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I think it's nostalgic collectors.
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I think it's people who are saying, man, that card as a kid
14:47
was like, Oh my gosh, everyone wanted that card.
14:50
I want to own it now. And so people are going out and
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buying it. So that card, because it's not
14:57
an infinite supply, even the the Ken Griffey Junior Upper deck
15:02
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
15:12
nostalgia people as as people are getting back into the hobby,
15:15
they're buying cards from their childhood.
15:17
There are some cards like an 89 tops Don Mattingly never really
15:22
going to be worth that much 'cause there are just piles and
15:25
piles and landfills and landfills full of those cards.
15:29
And so because of that, those cards are never going to really
15:31
jump. But but the extremely high
15:35
demand cards like the Griffey, like the cards that don't have
15:40
the crazy, the crazy high supply, but have demand.
15:49
They're they're I think they have some potential.
15:53
I wouldn't invest in them. I'm not saying, I'm not saying
15:57
I'm not saying go invest in 1988 wax not saying that.
16:03
What I'm saying is the number one determining factor of what
16:08
you collect should be what brings you joy.
16:10
That should be #1 if you want to also consider could these cards
16:16
go up in value, then I understand that.
16:19
And I would say the the highest of iconic cards like the score
16:25
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
16:34
will go up over the next few years.
16:36
Still not a ton, but a little bit.
16:38
But again, this isn't an investment channel.
16:40
I'm not telling you what you should do with your money.
16:42
I'm just saying don't write off those cards because there is a
16:46
sense of nostalgia out there. So, but more importantly, I want
16:51
to go back to the very first point that you made.
16:53
The very first point that you made was vintage cards are
16:55
getting too expensive. I disagree with that.
17:00
I disagree with that. I do the same video every month.
17:03
I have for two years of of 40 cards that sold for under $50.00
17:08
in in auctions the previous month.
17:11
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
17:19
are vintage cards that are from the 50s or the 60s that are
17:23
selling each and every month that are not that expensive.
17:27
So if you're talking about Mickey Mantle, if you're talking
17:30
about Willie Mays and Hank Aaron, Roberto Clemente and
17:33
Sandy Kofax or even pre war cards and Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth,
17:38
well, yeah, those are too expensive.
17:40
But there are some really, really good all time great
17:43
players, important players from different franchises that are
17:47
important franchises that won championships and all that kind
17:50
of stuff. You can get Whitey Ford cards
17:52
for cheap. You can get alkaline cards for
17:54
cheap. You can get tons of great
17:58
players. Roy Campanella cards for cheap,
18:00
Duke Snyder cards for cheap, Don Drysdale cards for cheap.
18:03
These are great players. These are Hall of farmers on
18:06
legendary teams and you can get those cards for 25, thirty, $35
18:11
in pretty darn decent condition. So I wouldn't just say, oh,
18:15
well, you know, vintage cards are too expensive.
18:18
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
18:25
that route. I would buy what you like.
18:28
I would buy what you like and, and, and enjoy the hobby.
18:34
And if they go up in value, great.
18:36
Now if you want to come back and say as an investment, what
18:39
should I do? Should I buy cards from the ages
18:41
or should I buy vintage cards? Different question, but from a
18:45
hobby perspective. Stop worrying about what
18:47
everybody else thinks. Stop worrying about what other
18:50
people like. What other people on other
18:52
channels are saying is a better buy.
18:54
Buy the thing that makes you happy.
18:56
That is really the whole point of what we're doing.
19:01
This one says. I am attempting to complete a
19:03
1958 All Star set in SGC 6 or better.
19:08
I choose SGC because I like the way vintage cards looks in a
19:11
tuxedo. Now to the point, some of the
19:15
lesser known players are hard to find graded like Sherm Lawler
19:20
and Frank Molzoni. Should I buy raw and submit or
19:25
just wait for one to come around?
19:27
Love your videos as always. I think it is incredible that
19:33
you are mentioning a subset that I I at one point had started
19:41
trying to build the 58 tops All Star set baseball.
19:45
I I was literally working on that set.
19:48
I was like, because if you look at some of the cards from that
19:51
set, the Willie Mays, the Mickey Mantle, the Stand Mutual,
19:54
there's some awesome, awesome cards in the 58 tops baseball
20:00
All Star subset, Really cool cards.
20:03
And it's really the first year of All Star cards.
20:05
That and, and it's a special set.
20:09
It's the first stand mutual card.
20:11
You know, the Mickey Mantle's a very affordable card 'cause it
20:14
was triple printed. Like I, I, I find it really
20:19
interesting 'cause I was going to do exactly what you're saying
20:23
you're doing. So that is awesome and and I
20:26
think that that's a really fun project and an affordable
20:30
project and you get a lot of great cards for a lot of great
20:33
players. 58 tops baseball All Star set.
20:38
Awesome, awesome thought to do that.
20:42
Now some of those cards, because they're low value cards, you're
20:46
not going to find them commonly graded, right?
20:49
That I mean, that's what you're saying.
20:50
You're saying, well, not a lot of people have some of these
20:53
cards in, you know, in grades because why would you grade a
20:59
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
21:05
in? Now I understand why you want
21:10
them to have an, an SCC holders 'cause they look good.
21:13
They do look good and I understand why you'd want them
21:16
to have them all matching and it'd be super awesome to see
21:18
them all laid out together. That would be a super fun
21:21
project. Great project.
21:23
Have I said that yet that it's a great project?
21:25
I think it's a great project. Those cards you can find in high
21:31
grade through, you know, like Greg Morris or something.
21:36
Some of these places you can find a high grade of those
21:40
lesser known players for pretty darn cheap.
21:45
And So what I would do is I wouldn't just sit and wait and
21:49
wait and wait for eventually those cards to show up in a high
21:57
grade SGC holder. I personally would go out and I
22:01
would buy cards that I thought you, I think you said SGC 6 or
22:06
better. I would go out and find cards
22:08
that I thought would get at least a seven in ungraded form.
22:13
And I would say, oh, this is this card's at least a 7.
22:17
And then that gives you a margin for error where if you're off by
22:19
a full grade, it still gets the six that you want.
22:23
And, and I would go out and I would find cards that I think
22:25
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
22:35
cases. And I would send them to SGC
22:37
myself. And if for some chance a card
22:40
came back as a 5.5 or something, you can hold it until you find
22:44
an upgrade if you wanted to actually stick with your goal of
22:48
the six or better. And then when you find the six
22:51
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
22:58
on the total investment that you have in the cart.
23:01
So I wouldn't wait around for a bunch of people to be grading a
23:05
bunch of lesser known players of that set.
23:12
I would go out and do it myself. So I would be hunting for really
23:16
sharp, good looking cards that I think are sevens or better.
23:20
I'd send them into STC. I'd get them slab myself.
23:23
I'd pay the 15 bucks to STC to slab them up.
23:26
And when you're done, I think you're going to have an awesome
23:28
project. Awesome idea.
23:32
This one says never miss a show. Great job.
23:35
You mentioned PSA grading standards have gotten tougher.
23:39
What about grading consistency with SGC?
23:43
Thanks, Joe. So I mean it, it's, it's super
23:48
interesting because we always, we're always talking about
23:51
grading and a lot of people get, Oh my gosh, here we go about
23:54
grading. But grading has become so
23:56
ingrained in the hobby. It is an important topic.
23:59
It is a topic that needs to be discussed.
24:02
It's important to be discussed because a lot of people, most
24:07
people that collect care about values.
24:09
And if you care about values, then grading has something to do
24:13
with that. Now, whether it should be that
24:14
way or not, it is a completely different discussion.
24:18
But I totally hear what you're saying about the consistency.
24:22
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
24:31
complain about the times that our cards get a lower grade than
24:35
we think that they should get. It is really easy for us to do
24:38
that. And, and what we don't remember
24:40
a lot is the card that we sent in that we thought was going to
24:43
get a six and it got a 7. Like we don't, we don't sit
24:47
there and go, Oh yeah, man, that card, I got hooked up on that
24:50
card. But what we do remember is the
24:54
time that we thought the card was going to get a four and they
24:56
only gave it a three that we remember.
24:59
And, and it's been, it's been a theme I've talked about a lot
25:02
lately. We are always focusing on the
25:04
negative. We are constantly and don't, I'm
25:08
not trying to say I'm innocent from this.
25:10
I am as guilty as anyone. I do it as well.
25:12
I don't want to be this way, but I definitely find myself when
25:19
something good happens, I'm quick to forget it.
25:23
And when something bad happens, I can't forget it.
25:26
And, and so grading companies, there are times cards are
25:31
overgraded. There are times cards are
25:32
undergraded. And I know that we sit there and
25:34
go, that's insane. I actually don't think that's
25:38
insane. I actually think that when they
25:42
say, yeah, you know, you send the card in five times and it
25:45
can get a different grade each time, that actually makes sense
25:48
to me because it's a human being who's doing it.
25:52
As long as human beings are doing the grading, there is
25:56
going to be a, a, a lack of consistency.
26:00
It there just is anytime human beings are involved, there is a
26:05
margin for error. And when you are ramping up how
26:08
many cards you're grading over a period of time, a short period
26:12
of time, then you're going to have more newer people, less
26:15
experienced people and that margin for error is going to get
26:18
bigger. Now, in a perfect world, we
26:23
would send in the card 10 times and it would get the same grade
26:26
all 10 times. And if we want a computerized
26:29
grading system, that's probably what could happen.
26:34
But that's not apparently what people want because that's not
26:38
what people are. People are not just, you know,
26:41
sending in all their cards to tag grading like they're sending
26:44
them in to the human graders. And we know that there are
26:48
inconsistencies with human graders.
26:50
The fact and then the the point and I've made this point to the
26:53
problem is if you give my card A7 and it should have gotten a
26:57
nine is the difference in value between the seven and the 9 is
27:00
just astronomical. And so when you, you know,
27:04
messed me over on the grading and you gave it a 7 and it
27:07
should have gotten a nine, you cost me thousands and thousands
27:10
of dollars. I get that.
27:12
I hear that. I agree with that.
27:14
I've said that. But the problem is that's not on
27:19
the grading company, that's on us.
27:22
We the collectors, we the hobbyists, we're the ones who
27:26
continue to say, well, if it has a nine, I'm willing to pay 4
27:31
times as much as the one that has A7 on it.
27:33
We're the ones that do that. We're the ones that set the
27:36
prices. PSA doesn't grade a card and
27:39
then say, well, this is what it's worth.
27:40
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
27:48
has a 7. Even though the seven looks
27:50
better than the 9, even though the seven looks like the better
27:54
card, I'm going to pay way more for the 9 than the seven.
27:58
And that's on us. We have to get away from that.
28:02
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
28:10
bad day 'cause that card to me is a near mint card.
28:14
It's not an X Mint card. So I'm going to go after the
28:17
near Mint looking card because it is near Mint.
28:20
It's not X-Men, even though the grade says X-Men.
28:24
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
28:32
think that we have to continue to remind ourselves that grading
28:37
is an opinion. It's a third party person's
28:39
opinion. That person might be on the 9
28:42
1/2 hour of their ten hour shift and they've been looking at
28:47
cards all day and they're hungry and they're ready to go home and
28:51
they're missing their kids baseball game and they're
28:53
grading our card that the difference between a nine and a
28:56
seven is $10,000. We we have to look at how wild
29:06
that is. We have to look at that.
29:09
And when when people when we are willing to pay thousands of
29:14
dollars more for A10 than a nine, when the 9 might be a
29:19
better card, we have to take the power back.
29:25
And Greg, you sound like a broken record.
29:27
OK, maybe I'm a broken record, but I'm going to continue to say
29:32
that. So the question is, and I
29:35
haven't even really addressed the question, but I have, I
29:38
mean, the question is, are there inconsistencies with STC?
29:41
Of course, are there consistency issues with PSA, of course.
29:48
But it absolutely seems. And is this anecdotal or is
29:53
this, you know, something that I have some scientific evidence
29:57
on? It's anecdotal, but I have seen
30:01
more cards come through PSA that have been graded more harshly
30:07
than I have seen with SGC. If I send a card into SGC, most
30:14
of the time the card is going to get pretty darn close to the
30:18
grade. I'm rarely going to be blown
30:21
away that SGC, Oh my gosh, SGC gave it a three.
30:27
I thought I was going to get a 6 1/2 or A7.
30:30
That doesn't happen, but that does happen with PSA and and
30:34
video after video. You can watch it just hours and
30:37
hours and hours of this on YouTube of people doing PSA
30:40
reveals going how is this card A6?
30:43
This card to me is a nine. How is this a six in?
30:47
Some of it is we're probably not looking at our cards close
30:50
enough when before we send them in.
30:52
And part of this is, you know, could be issues with graders and
30:58
some of this could be the new technology that's being used.
31:02
But of course, there's inconsistencies.
31:04
It's human grading it. There are always errors.
31:09
There are always errors with anything when humans are
31:14
involved. I'm not perfect.
31:16
You're not perfect. The persons you know across the
31:20
hall from us isn't perfect. So in my humble opinion,
31:27
anecdotal is just anecdotal. This is just Greg.
31:30
What do you think my opinion is? I have seen many many many more
31:36
cards be graded by PSA that I looked at him and said I don't
31:43
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.
31:57
But but there are many more times that that happens with
32:01
PSA. Does that mean we should shut
32:04
PSA down? Does that mean PSA should go
32:06
away? Does that mean we should stop
32:08
using PSA? I mean, we got to do you, you
32:10
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
32:20
the dead horse. Grading is an opinion.
32:24
The number is assigned to the card by a person who looks at a
32:32
rubric and looks at certain qualities about the card.
32:36
They go, OK, the corners, is there a touch?
32:39
Is there frame, is there bend? Is there significant rounding?
32:44
Is there some rounding? And they use an opinion for that
32:47
rubric and they go through it step by step, I have no doubt.
32:53
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
33:01
significant rounding is going to be different from person to
33:04
person. And it doesn't matter if you
33:06
train them all day every day. But we have to also keep in mind
33:11
PSA is grading over 1,000,000 cards a month right now.
33:15
And five years ago, they weren't.
33:19
So they had to come up with graders.
33:22
They had to hire people. They had to have people work
33:25
more hours. They had to have more hours
33:28
being spent on grading cards than they used to.
33:31
They had to have. That's the only way it would be
33:34
possible to grade more cards. And so either the same number of
33:37
people are working longer hours, which is probably going to lead
33:41
to some inconsistencies, or they're hiring new people who
33:45
have less experience, which is going to lead to some
33:48
inconsistencies regardless. I do I have proof that PSA has
33:57
been more inconsistent than SGC? No, but does SGC have some
34:06
inconsistencies? Of course, of course, 'cause
34:10
they're humans. So I don't know how else to say
34:14
it, I and I'm not I, I definitely there are
34:19
inconsistencies with STC. Definitely there are
34:22
inconsistencies with PSA. Definitely there are
34:26
inconsistencies with anything or a human being is involved in the
34:31
process of judging something. And the way that as collectors
34:39
we are spending our money, we are making that result in huge
34:47
amounts of dollars lost or added based on the number that was an
34:53
assigned, which is an opinion by a person who's sitting in a room
35:01
at a grading company. When you look at it like that,
35:05
we have to really take a deep look at how much value are we
35:12
going to continue to put into a grade.
35:15
The grade has some value doesn't determine all of the value, even
35:21
though right now a lot of people in the hobby are making it the
35:26
number one factor by a long shot on what the value is based on
35:34
And finally, this one says I've been focusing on collecting
35:38
sealed baseball product such as cello packs and rack packs with
35:43
stars or Hall of Fame rookie cards on top along with factory
35:47
sealed and BBCEFASC boxes. I would love to get your opinion
35:54
on this subject and if you're interested in this type of
35:57
collecting. All right, so I, I think this
36:02
is, this is a super fun way to collect what you're suggesting
36:06
is a fun way to collect sealed wax, sealed cellos, sealed rack
36:13
packs where there are certain players showing on the packs.
36:18
Absolutely fun thing to do. Now, is it for me at this
36:24
moment, as things stand right now, that is not something that
36:30
really gets my juices flowing, but I completely understand why
36:36
it would get somebody else's juices flowing.
36:39
The longer I have been in the hobby, the more I am looking for
36:45
new things to search for. And I've, I've said this many
36:49
times, I'll continue to say this many times that I like to see
36:54
things that I don't see every day.
36:57
If you're watching a baseball game and they throw a perfect
37:00
game, you're like, Oh my gosh, I just watched the perfect game.
37:04
That never happens. That's intriguing.
37:06
That's exciting, right? That's that would be exciting to
37:11
see a perfect game. My dad and my brother went to a
37:15
A's Yankees game in Oakland couple years ago and they
37:19
watched a perfect game. Not a lot of people have done
37:22
that. That makes it extra exciting
37:25
when you see things that you don't see every day.
37:28
That is exciting, That is fun. And and you don't see cello
37:34
packs every day or rack wax packs every day or old wax boxes
37:38
every day. You just don't see that stuff a
37:40
lot. And when you do see cello packs
37:43
and rack packs, you don't generally see like one of the
37:47
key chase cards on the top. So that makes it unusual and
37:51
unusual is interesting. It is, at least it is to me, in
37:55
this hobby where there are thousands and thousands of
37:58
directions you can go and we get to pick whichever directions we
38:02
want to go. It's fun to find a, a niche
38:08
somewhere in there that is different, that is unusual.
38:12
It's different than what everyone else is doing.
38:14
You know, for me, part of the, the excitement about putting
38:19
together my pirate card set is I don't know anybody putting
38:22
together a pirate card set. At least I didn't at the time.
38:26
That was different. There were cards that were new
38:29
to me. It was a set that was new to me.
38:31
It was an era of cards that was new to me and that made it
38:35
unique, that made it special, that made it interesting.
38:39
And so the thing about this hobby is there are some people
38:44
who like autographed cards, some people who don't, some people
38:47
who like old cards, some people like new, some people like shiny
38:51
cards, some people don't. Some people don't like
38:53
multiplayer cards, other people do.
38:55
Some people don't like All Star cards, other people do.
38:58
Some people like SGC, some people like PSA, some people
39:01
like CGC. There are so many options that
39:07
you get to pick your route, you get to decide which lines to
39:13
connect in your route, in building your collection.
39:19
And I could totally see the excitement of going after wax
39:25
'cause you don't see it all the time.
39:27
And going after unopened stuff with top cards showing on the
39:31
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?
39:38
Is it for me? No.
39:40
But what I do think is something that we all should consider is
39:47
don't just look at what is what is Greg doing?
39:50
Oh, Greg likes pirate cards. I'm going to like pirate cards.
39:54
Oh, Tony Liebric likes autographed cards.
39:57
So I'm going to like autographed cards.
39:59
What you should do is you should go to a card show and you should
40:04
look around. And when you look around.
40:08
You should sit there and go. That right there is really cool.
40:14
That's what you should buy. And if that right there, which
40:18
is really cool, is unopened wax, collect unopened wax.
40:25
But just because it's not for me doesn't mean it shouldn't be for
40:29
you. These are the sorts of
40:33
conversations I love. These are the sorts of topics
40:36
that I absolutely love. And, and, and when I started the
40:41
channel, nobody was watching. Nobody watched my channel
40:46
because nobody knew I existed. And I couldn't wait until people
40:53
watched so that we could have this dialogue where you could
40:58
ask me questions and I could share my thoughts, where I could
41:03
ask you all questions like on Mondays.
41:05
And I could share your thoughts. And then I could share my
41:09
responses where you all could be adding cards to your collection
41:13
and you could be sharing them with me so I could share them
41:16
with everyone. The dialogue of the community,
41:21
the the Midlife Nation community that we have put together here
41:26
is what makes this whole thing 10 times more fun.
41:31
You can collect unopened wax and I could not, but we could still
41:37
coexist in a hobby and have a ton of fun together and totally
41:42
respect each other. Some of the channels that I
41:44
watch and I get the most excited watching and I get the most
41:47
excited when I see that they're posting a new video, are people
41:51
who collect completely differently than me.
41:54
They own stuff I would never ever own.
41:58
But it's not about what they collect.
42:02
And I'll say this until I'm blue in the face.
42:06
I love the hobby. Not because other people for
42:10
what they collect, it's for why they collected.
42:15
I am interested in hearing what gets people excited and why it
42:19
gets them excited. I am not I, you do not have to
42:23
collect like me and I do not have to collect like you for us
42:28
to be able to come together and have discussions about the hobby
42:32
and, and enjoy that time together.
42:35
Most of my friends that are in this hobby collect so
42:39
differently than me, so differently than me, but we have
42:45
a fun time when we're talking cards, even though we do it
42:49
differently. So the thing I loved about this
42:53
question and why I was happy to include it this this week is
42:57
because it's a perfect example of how I could have none in my
43:03
collection of what you're describing.
43:06
Well, actually, I have a couple that were gifts and you might
43:09
have no pirate cards in your collection, even though I have
43:12
the whole set. And we could still coexist in
43:15
this hobby and we can still have a blast together talking about
43:20
the hobby and enjoying it. I just love when people have
43:24
things that they're passionate about and sharing why they're
43:28
passionate about it. That's the part that I love.
43:32
If you have something you want to talk about, if you have a
43:35
topic in the hobby that you want brought up on an upcoming
43:39
episode, a question you wanted to check my opinion on, which I
43:43
might agree with you, I might disagree with you.
43:46
But that's the beauty. Because if we agreed on
43:48
everything, do you know how boring this would be?
43:51
If we agreed on everything, this would be the most boring thing
43:55
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
44:03
different eBay searches and we all go to different auction
44:07
houses and what you are looking for and what I am looking for
44:11
are completely different. That's the fun part.
44:15
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
44:23
episode. I look forward to those.
44:26
Thank you to everybody who asked a question.
44:29
Thanks for watching.