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Originally Posted by GreenLantern
My question would be about the grading systems. So it seems like grading is all the rage. Cards, unless they are a 1/1 of course, seem to drop drastically in value from a 10 to a 9, 8 etc..
I also see you can buy a 10 for 1200 on a card on ebay, then a non graded card for 1.95. Are these non graded ones mostly knock offs? Is there a legit concern/problem with knock off or counterfeit cards these days?
My boy also bought some packs from the Dollar Store for kicks and giggles, and there were like 90's Score cards in there. I compared the look and feel to my actual 90's Score hockey cards and it was an obvious difference/reprint, not an original. I am assuming this style of card has over saturated the market which is why grading is necessary?
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I’ll try to find some more informative videos and post them, in the meantime search up zeeree as he posts a lot of hockey card videos that are reasonably entertaining for kids and adults, and he actually knows and follows hockey. The worst are the videos of “breakers” in the US who can’t even pronounce half of the players’ names.
I’ll also try not to be too much of a Debbie Downer as I have some pretty strong views on this but collecting cards is a lot different nowadays and in many ways it’s no more than gambling. But as long as you don’t go crazy with it, it’s something that will hopefully be fun for you and your kid to enjoy. My daughter is 8 and she doesn’t really know anything about hockey but there is a hockey card trading club at her school so I gave her a binder full of cards so she can trade with her friends.
As for graded cards, I’m personally not a fan but it is a big thing nowadays, especially for the higher end stuff (there was a time during the pandemic that people were sending in so many cards — even just modern base cards — that companies like PSA and BGS couldn’t keep up). But yes, having a card graded a PSA 10 or BGS 9.5 means that it is now “worth” more since it is theoretically more rare than ungraded cards and cards in lesser graded condition. For modern cards, a PSA 8 or 9 or BGS 8.5 or 9 will be closer to what an ungraded (aka raw) card goes for. If there is one benefit to buying a graded card it is that it will not be counterfeit; it is less of an issue these days with the way modern cards are made but is still something to consider with older cards from the 80’s and prior. There are also a lot of other grading card companies around nowadays but if you are wanting to maximize resale value, PSA and BGS are probably the two to look for. But I personally think raw cards are perfectly fine, unless you’re buying higher value stuff and are interested in resale (or just prefer having your cards encased in a plastic holder).
As for the Score cards in the dollarama repacks, yes they were all massively overproduced from approx 1989 to 1995 such that anyone and everyone who ever wanted a particular card could get one or ten — simple supply and demand (and explains why a Jaromir Jagr rookie card is only worth like $5). They call it the “junk wax era” because 99% of those cards are now all but worthless. Once they scaled back production to more reasonable numbers, added shiny insert cards, autographs and memorabilia cards, and individually numbered cards (including the infamous “1 of 1”) you could create more demand by decreasing supply. By doing so, however, the regular base cards that we all collected as kids don’t even seem to matter anymore.
I would say grading adds another layer to combat overproduction and the supply and demand problem — what I call “manufactured scarcity” because now instead of chasing “x” card people are now chasing “x” card in PSA 10 and paying a premium for it (because there are only 500 in existence, which you can verify since the grading companies publish that data). It will be interesting to see what happens over the next few years as companies have started to increase production runs again (especially post-pandemic in response to increased demand), and that will absolutely be the case when everyone is chasing Bedard rookie cards next year...