General Forum

Hi.  So I have a pretty decent baseball card collection.  I care about condition, but am not by any means an elite collector.  I'm perfectly happy with a card in very good or excellent condition.  I have exactly one graded card in my collection -- a 1959 Topps Sandy Koufax, SGC 50/4.  It came with a nice little lot I picked up on eBay.  

But now it's starting to annoy me.  It's out there on the bookcase with other decent cards in plastic holders on stands, cards I sometimes rotate with other cards in the binders. But I can't rotate this one out and have it join its1959 friends.  I must keep it on display in it's case because a "professional" company has declared it to be a 4, so it has minor enhanced value.  I don't disagree with the company, by the way.  It's about a 4, which is fine with me.  But I've suddenly gotten the urge to crack it out of it's plastic prison.  I admit that if it were a 7 or better, I'd either leave it alone, or sell it and buy an ungraded one (and about 5 other nice ungraded cards).  But it's not. It's a 4 -- I'm sure a terrible disappointment to some poor soul who sent it in hoping to make his fortune.  

So the question is:  Do I free Sandy?

v3

I bought a 1992 Fleer Update set that had the Piazza, Kent, & Wakefield cards graded (all 8s) at a super sweet price (I think it was under $20!).

I'd say sell it and buy an ungraded copy or trade it for an ungraded one. Unless you don't want all of that hassle, then just pop it open and set it free and let him join his friends and film the whole thing!

 I question the whole grading system.    You have so many different eyes that could grade the card.    What is one man's 7.5 is another man's 8.     

 First, I'm liking the way these answers are leaning. Thank you. 

Second, I can't believe that I wrote "it's" not once, but twice in my original post where "its" was correct. I think I'll blame autocorrect. 

V3

Slabbed cards in plastic make me sad.

Free him from his cage!  Cards are meant to be enjoyed.  If you can't enjoy it in a slab, what's the point of having it??

I've never dealt with graded cards and don't plan on it.  However, I do like the idea of trying to sell it.  I would make sure I could find an ungraded one first, though.  A 4 seems pointless to grade, but for the age of the card you could get some good money for it.  If you do it through ebay, set an acceptable reserve to protect yourself though.

But like the other poster said, if you don't want to deal with all that, just crack it open.  You're obviously doing it as a collector and not trying to make a profit on it, so whatever makes you happy.

 it's nice to see that people here share the same ideas as I do about graded cards. Waste of money and time in my opinion. I have Becketts from 2004 and there isn't much of a price change to the one I got 4 months ago. I was a bit concerned that people on this site would be similar to the ones on my coin site.  Uncirculated or it's worthless to me. Now I think I may have a chance to trade... sad that I don't collect baseball,  as that seems to be the card of choice :( set him free! He misses his friends and would love to be reunited! No card deserves captivity.