Don't Look Back, Part II
12/23/06 01:27 PersonalGeneral Yammering
I retired my 1938 Goudey registry set.
I'd considered doing it for a long time, and gave it some hard thoughts after the recent grading mishaps I've had. I considered crossing the entire set to SGC, but I'm a stickler for display, and it seems I need to upgrade some of my cards before I can cross them to the same grade. I don't want to take downgrades because of the money I have invested, I don't want to sell the ones that won't cross because I don't want holes in my set, and I don't want to cross only some of them because I don't want a mixed set.
At the same time, I no longer want to play the registry game. My set had gotten to #5, and I'm convinced that it's one of the most carefully assembled, high-grade '38 sets in the hobby. There are still some weaknesses in the set, but without the competition of the registry, which I somehow became a victim to, I can be more patient and focus more on acquiring great CARDS, rather than better GRADES.
The straw that broke the camel's back, I guess, was this Al Lopez.
Al has a 7 on the flip, but he's more like a 5. He came with a 7 price tag, though, and a lousy scan and a "no refunds on graded cards" stuck me with the card. Okay, I can't blame PSA for making an obvious, blatant mistake in grading, as we shouldn't depend on the grading company. There could be any number of reasons why the three graders who review each PSA card agreed that the card was worthy of a 7. Or perhaps the corners and edges got damaged while the card was in the holder.
What pissed me off about this was that I bought it. Based on a lousy scan, I saw the "7" on the flip and pulled the trigger on a BIN because I just KNEW that a PSA 7 would be an upgrade to the PSA 5 I had. And when the card arrived, and it wasn't, I realized that I had bought the holder, not the card.
I don't collect holders.
So I got depressed for a while, threw some weak bids at the PSA 8 Medwick in the Mastro auction, submitted my set to SGC for review, and ultimately just decided that I love my '38 set, and think it's one of the nicest ones anyone will ever be able to assemble. But I can't tolerate the fact that I started buying certs to bump my overall grade.
I'll sit on the sidelines and collect my set quietly. I'll upgrade with true upgrades and I'll post my new cards here; my set will stay on this website and I'll continue to have a gallery. Whenever I discover something new about the set, I'll try and write something about it.
But I won't buy a 5 in a 7 holder, ever again.
I'd considered doing it for a long time, and gave it some hard thoughts after the recent grading mishaps I've had. I considered crossing the entire set to SGC, but I'm a stickler for display, and it seems I need to upgrade some of my cards before I can cross them to the same grade. I don't want to take downgrades because of the money I have invested, I don't want to sell the ones that won't cross because I don't want holes in my set, and I don't want to cross only some of them because I don't want a mixed set.
At the same time, I no longer want to play the registry game. My set had gotten to #5, and I'm convinced that it's one of the most carefully assembled, high-grade '38 sets in the hobby. There are still some weaknesses in the set, but without the competition of the registry, which I somehow became a victim to, I can be more patient and focus more on acquiring great CARDS, rather than better GRADES.
The straw that broke the camel's back, I guess, was this Al Lopez.
Al has a 7 on the flip, but he's more like a 5. He came with a 7 price tag, though, and a lousy scan and a "no refunds on graded cards" stuck me with the card. Okay, I can't blame PSA for making an obvious, blatant mistake in grading, as we shouldn't depend on the grading company. There could be any number of reasons why the three graders who review each PSA card agreed that the card was worthy of a 7. Or perhaps the corners and edges got damaged while the card was in the holder.
What pissed me off about this was that I bought it. Based on a lousy scan, I saw the "7" on the flip and pulled the trigger on a BIN because I just KNEW that a PSA 7 would be an upgrade to the PSA 5 I had. And when the card arrived, and it wasn't, I realized that I had bought the holder, not the card.
I don't collect holders.
So I got depressed for a while, threw some weak bids at the PSA 8 Medwick in the Mastro auction, submitted my set to SGC for review, and ultimately just decided that I love my '38 set, and think it's one of the nicest ones anyone will ever be able to assemble. But I can't tolerate the fact that I started buying certs to bump my overall grade.
I'll sit on the sidelines and collect my set quietly. I'll upgrade with true upgrades and I'll post my new cards here; my set will stay on this website and I'll continue to have a gallery. Whenever I discover something new about the set, I'll try and write something about it.
But I won't buy a 5 in a 7 holder, ever again.
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