Should I Grade This: When is it worth slabbing your cards?
Card grading has significantly increased in popularity over the past few years. Quite often, customers wander in with a card that’s slabbed and ask what it’s worth only to learn that by spending the $12-60 to get the card graded, they didn’t increase its value much, if at all.
Having a card graded by a company that specializes in determining its overall condition can result in a massive value spike, but there are several factors at play in determining whether and how much having a card graded will impact its value.
Traditionally, card grading was reserved for trading cards (minus the game) because those items have no reason not to live in a hard plastic case. Your signed Mickey Mantle is just as usable once it’s in a slab as it was raw (“raw” is slang for “ungraded”), and actually is probably easier to display once it’s in a nice, shiny, sealed UV-resistant plastic. The same people who were interested in it when it wasn’t graded are probably still interested in it now that it is. When we’re talking about trading card GAMES, slabbing a card actually alienates a huge portion of the consumer-base (I’m talking about the players).
This all ties in to a previous post about how there are different types of TCG consumers. The ones who are interested in graded cards are predominantly collectors. Players, in most situations, literally cannot use a card that is no longer able to be shuffled into a deck and resellers/investors are much more interested in finding a raw card they can get graded to pad their margin on that item OR a raw card that still has 100% of its interested consumer-base intact. The proportion of the consumer base that is each type of consumer varies widely from game to game, so some games are universally more benefitted from slabbing cards than others.
This is all a really long-winded way of explaining WHY some cards are worth grading and others are not. So, which cards are worth getting graded?
First, like everything else in the collectibles industry this is not an exact science.
Second, full disclaimer, I don’t bother sending anything out to get graded. I feel like it’s a rip-off and if I really wanted a graded copy of a card, I’d buy that card already-slabbed at a 10 from someone else.
And third, “I really just want to get this graded because I can,” is a perfectly valid reason to get your card graded. By all means, go for it. I will always advocate that if you are in this industry and NOT trying to make a profit, you should do whatever it is that makes your heart happy.
I’m just here to help you understand which cards present the lowest chance you’re throwing money into a black hole if you ARE trying to do this as an investment. So, here are…
5 Situations Where It’s financially Worth Grading a Card from a Trading Card Game:
Cards that don't get shuffled in AND whose value is based on collectability rather than playability are more likely to benefit from being graded and receiving a good grade than cards that have their value based on playability AND have to be shuffled into a deck. For example, a slabbed mana crypt is almost never going to be worth much more than a raw one because the value is in its role within the deck whereas a super pretty commander that has a serial number is going to ALWAYS be worth getting graded for increased value.
Cards that are so unique or so valuable they won’t ever get played in an actual deck are worth getting graded for the extra level of authentication, and to help bolster what we call provenance. The 1/1 One Ring, or playtest cards from Alpha MTG are both good examples of this.
Cards that you’re planning to keep for a very long time featuring iconic characters, and which will continue to hold value even if the game becomes irrelevant. The enchanted cards from Lorcana are an excellent example of this because 50 years from now, even if no one is playing Lorcana, Disney collectors will want pristine versions of anything super rare which features Cinderella, Mickey, Minnie or any number of other super-popular Disney characters.
Cards that you want to make sure aren’t able to deteriorate in condition. When you get a card graded, you essentially have it sealed in amber. It’s the SAFEST way to store a trading card, especially if you take that slab upon its return and place it in a hermetically sealed chamber or you opt for one of the grading companies’ vault storage solutions (what happens to those products if those companies are robbed or go out of business or are acquired, I have no idea. That’s between you and them). But basically, even if a card does somehow deteriorate in the slab, you have a certificate printed right on it that says it’s in pristine condition. It’s basically double-speak to your benefit!
Cards that you’re certain will come back with a 9.5 or 10 overall grade. This is the hardest criteria for us to meet, by far, because sometimes grading companies get it wrong, and sometimes we’re way less good at seeing what’s wrong with a card than we think we are. A card might look pristine to you, but with a digital micrometer, a super high-powered magnifier, and a well-trained eye? It might be a 7. This is why I consider grading a risk; you simply cannot predict with 100% accuracy what grade a card will receive until it has received it, and you have to pay the company regardless of what grade they give it, based upon the value you estimate the card will be AFTER it’s graded so that it’s insured properly in case they destroy it or lose it.
We offer appraisal services for anyone who wants help determining what their collection is worth. Part of that service is meeting with me and I will talk you through how you can get the most value from your collection based on what your goals are. You can find more information or book an appointment here.