[420ramsfan]

I think you need a third button for "It's your money, you can spend it the way you want." I think getting the rarer stuff graded/encased is smart if you want to do that. Getting the common base graded if that's what you're talking about... well that's your choice. I just can't see spending $8 to protect a 25-cent card in a BGS case when IMHO a penny sleeve and 10c top-loader work just fine.

i totally agree with uwash. plus wont my cards in sleeves, toploaders, & boxes be in as good condition? (if i dont let the Grandkids paw through them)

[branesergen]

i totally agree with uwash. plus wont my cards in sleeves, toploaders, & boxes be in as good condition? (if i dont let the Grandkids paw through them)

Yes & no. Over time the sleeves can stick and mess up the surface. Or they can be handled and dropped and fall out of the toploader wrong and ding a corner. My biggest concern is everyone treats cards differently. Just look at the shipping methods. So knowing what a card is graded at takes everything off the table. Will they package it correctly, will the PO mess it up, will the grandkids get ahold of them one day, will the dog get them, is there too much moisture in my house etc etc. Slabbed cards eliminate 99.9% of that.

[bakerman8419]

A LOT of good stuff here for me to digest and I appreciate everybody's advice. The main issue for me is cost. If it were $4-$5 per card including s/h Id be all over it. Every 10 cards is about $100 and the worst part is anything lower than a 9.5 the card may lose value with the amount of people who hate graded cards. Now of course these are PC items but I guess its just the point of it lol. I do think its a good idea to at least submit my best cards for the added protection. Maybe I will do a few here and there and see how I feel afterwards. thanks for the advice everyone!

[branesergen]

Remember even 8's will bring in good money possibly in the future. Look at a Marino RC. As time goes by the value goes up and grading only adds to that value. What I do is send in 10 to 20 cards at a time (used to anyway - now its 75 or so for pricing and longer delays between submissions) but with those 10-20 cards I always throw in some low end stuff with the high end stuff just because I want to see it graded. So for every 10 autos I would send in a $5 - $10 card that you don't see graded. Its a slow BUT steady process and that's what I like anyway. And even if that $10 card comes back a BGS 9 there are people who like grading who will pay the cost of grading to buy the card. Back before I collected Manning I sent in an Orange refractor and X-fractor ($10 cards) and they both came back a 9. I sold them both for $20 so made a profit and covered grading.

[chads-cards]

I'd say do it bake

Your not collecting Jason Taylor or Thomas for the profits so why not keep it protected and display it. I think you should do it more for the safty aspect. I know if I had a flood or something I could never replace my Colbert collection. I'm also not going to slab 3000 cards though ha. So slab the ones that mean the most