Top 5 Mistakes People Make when grading cards
Collector’s will at some point face the questions, to grade or not to grade. What should I do? I myself faced these question years ago and finally jumped into the water and you know what, it felt pretty good. That said, I made mistakes. Oh man did I make mistakes. That goes with the territory I suppose, but these are the 5 mistakes I see people make when grading cards that I wish I knew when I was getting started.
grading your junk wax
Oh man did they print a lot of wax back in the day. For those of us collecting cards in the 80’s and 90’s we held onto a lot of those Canseco’s and Griffey’s with the idea that one day they would make us rich.
Then you give eBay a looksie and realize these are just a few bucks.
But same card graded, hundreds sometimes thousands.
Maybe my binder is holding a fortune.
Well, that’s where I’m gonna tell you to pump the brakes.
Those cards you were holding onto back in the day aren’t going to grade out at a 10. I don’t care how nicely you put them in your binder or what kind of torture like screw down you got, they just don’t give out 10’s on these cards anymore. That ship has sailed.
If you send out a bunch of your cards from the junk wax era get ready to get back a bunch of 5,6’s and 7’s. If you’re lucky, you’ll get a 8 or 9. Look up the recent sales on those cards at those grades and then see the price to grade. The math just doesn’t math.
These cards are meant to be slid into a binder and enjoyed. Not get rich off.
2. grading anything and everything
We had the junk wax era and sometimes it feels like we are in the middle of the junk slab ERA.
PSA literally had to remove submission tiers because they were getting too many cards to grade. Basically, they said please stop giving us money we can’t keep up. This is because people are sending in just about everything.
I’m guilty of it too.
I’ve got slabs sitting on the shelf that aren’t going anywhere.
Just because a card is numbered, doesn’t mean it needs to be graded.
It’s a Judge.
It’s an Acuna.
It’s also a 2025 base.
Those cards aren’t meant to be graded.
3. assuming every card out of a pack is a 10
This one gets just about everyone
You pull that monster auto.
It’s numbered.
It’s beautiful.
It’s definitely off center.
When sending out cards you need to inspect the card thoroughly.
Look at the corners.
The Edges.
The surfacing.
Print lines.
And then look again.
If too man of these are off and it’s not a card from the 60’s don’t send it out.
Cards come out of packs that aren’t perfect all the time. It’s our job to filter those out.
4. Not Researching a players value
It’s an easy thing to check out and yet we often forget to check those recent sales.
Before sending a card out ask yourself:
What is this card selling for raw?
What does a PSA 9 sell for?
What does a PSA 10 sell for?
Are people buying this player?
A little research can help save you a lot of money.
5. Not tracking your grading costs
This took me a few orders to figure out.
I’d send out order after order.
Eventually, I realized the costs were adding up.
But were they worth it?
A simple spreadsheet tracking costs vs. earnings keeps this hobby in check.
If you’re grading to make money, knowing the numbers is just as important as knowing the cards.
final thoughts
Grading is fun. I’ve been doing it for years and I still get excited whenever I get that delivery of graded cards.
Mistakes will be made and sometimes you’ve gotta make a few to figure out what works for you.