Grading Your Cards the SMART Way

We'll talk about how to grade card in minute, but first, we need to discuss why people grade cards and it's not as simple as you may think. The biggest reason is probably resale value. Tens are where the money is made, and there is lot of money to be made. Some people have built huge businesses by purchasing raw collections, grading them and selling the 10's. But there is risk involved. Unfortunately having card graded really means you're paying for an opinion. There's long running joke that your grader might have had bad day and as result your card got lower grade than it deserved. Even though this is joke there's some truth in here and we know this because there are thousands of examples online of people cracking slabs open and resubmitting their cards until it gets 10, because 10's sell for lot more than nines. Now resubmitting is isn't free, you're essentially submitting another card therefore paying the fee again. Because of this, companies that utilize machine learning or AI to grade card are on the rise. The theory behind this is that you should be able to resubmit card and receive the exact same grade every time but most cards are still being graded by humans which means it's bit of gamble. Another perk is that grading companies will authenticate your card so once it's in slab you know it's not fake... most of the time. Unfortunately, the more money, the more corruption and scheming tend to leak into the hobby. Now don't want to discourage anyone from buying their first graded card, but there are fake slabs out there. Some labels will have QR code on the back that you can scan and it will take you to the high-resolution scan of that card. This way you can compare the holo pattern or unique characteristics to confirm that no funny business is going on. And while you're on there you can check out the population report. You see each service has pop report that displays how many cards have been graded and at which grades. For example, that Umbreon card that everyone loves has been graded by PSA over 20,000 times and most of them got 10. We can learn lot from analyzing pop report, for example, the 1st edition Snorlax from Jungle has been graded over 4,000 times but only 47 have received 10 so it's probably pretty expensive to buy 10. By the way, this would also suggest that it's good opportunity to make some money if you happen to have raw gem mint copy at home. My advice, even though said this would be unbiased, is to just enjoy it for yourself. Grade the card that you want to grade and if you see an opportunity to make some money take it. Grading cards and selling them or trading them to obtain card you want more is very reasonable and acceptable. Let's start at the beginning. The first thing you have to do is choose grading service. They all offer different slabs, labels, pricing, and perks. However, the industry is heavily dominated by PSA- they grade the most cards and tend to sell for the highest on the secondary Market. The downside is that they are little more expensive and they'll charge you extra if you have something special like first edition Charizard for example. couple more are CGC and BGS also known as Beckett. Both companies grade on scale of 1 to 10, just like PSA, but offer grade higher than 10. These are pristine 10 or Perfect 10 meaning that these cards are perfect in every way. We'll talk more about these in the pre-grading section. In this industry, people tend to choose one grading service and declare their loyalty to them, but it's important to remain unbiased and send your cards to whichever service is best for you. And that's why I've partnered with Whatnot to give away this lot of great cards. That's right you can win all of these! Whatnot is social marketplace where live auctions take place and my favorite auction on Whatnot is the rapid fire slabs. This is when the seller puts graded card on the stand and starts the timer, but sometimes the auctions are as short as 5 seconds so you have to act fast. As you can see, managed to snipe some pretty good deals this way, and I'm giving them all away to random subscriber who leaves their Whatnot username in the comments below. You'll receive everything you see right here and I'll ship anywhere in the world. I've tried to find something everyone would like and graded by few different companies so you can get feel for each. It's free to sign up and if you scan this QR code or use my link in the description you'll get $15 off your first purchase. Don't forget to leave your Whatnot username in the comments and thank you Whatnot for sponsoring this video. grader's reputation is very important factor. People trust PSA and that's why they have such high value on the secondary Market. There are lot of young grading companies that are only few years, old and while they might be very good at what they do they don't have decades of trust from the public. As result, 10 from these smaller companies isn't worth the same as 10 from PSA but that might not matter to you. specialized label might be the perfect fit for your personal collection and that's okay. It's all about what makes you happy. This factor also comes into play if you live outside the US. Domestic options are lot cheaper, but resale value will suffer because Americans won't recognize the grading company. And before we move on, someone may have told you not to trust one service or another because they make mistakes. To be clear, this happens across the board. People have tested these companies by sending them fakes. For example, someone sent PSA authentic cards with fake 1st edition stamps and they actually graded them. CGC recently graded fake play test cards and in the past graded cards as miscuts even though they were cut up at home with scissors. Becket has been accused of favoritism lot, like lot, this includes one person's submission receiving 81 black labels which should be near impossible even from statistical standpoint. None of them are perfect. Remember, this is service they provide. They work for us. So if you're looking to maximize resale value, PSA is grading service for you, otherwise it's worth researching each service and deciding which one vibes the best with you. And remember some popular influencers are heavily invested in one company, so it's in their best interest to recommend them... and sometimes slander others. Okay choosing card or multiple cards can be tough. There's lot to think about and it can get expensive the more cards you pick, but I'll tell you secret: it's not that big of deal. want you to focus on getting your first submission out so you'll be more comfortable with future grading decisions. Okay so you're flipping through your binder and trying to find some cards to send off. few questions ask myself are: is this better in my binder or on display? And is this something could potentially sell if it gets 10? It's tempting to only send cards in that look like potential 10. Let's jump back to that Umbreon pop report. All these 10 grades doesn't mean that all Umbreons are 10's, it means most people send it in if it looks like 10. This is because Umbreon is in high demand and 10 sells for big bucks. You might want to look up the raw value of your card then compare it to the graded value. All we're doing here is little bit of research to see which cards have the highest return on investment. In some rare cases grading can lower the value of the card. This sounds crazy, know, but it's true. raw card that looks like 10 can be more expensive than graded 9. recently sent in this Walking Wake ex card. It looked like it could be 10 but it got 9, and unfortunately it didn't really add any value, so kind of wasted the grading fee. This is why it's important to do your research beforehand. But what if you just want to send in your childhood cards regardless of value? This is not only okay, it's encouraged. No one is going to frown upon the idea of grading playground Charizard, in fact, some people collect cards that get grade of one. There's something special about card that has visible signs of being loved. These one grades can sometimes outperform twos or threes on the market, but if you don't care about value and you don't typically display your cards then it might be time to ask yourself if grading is even worth it. You're spending money and taking on small amount of risk by shipping your card in the mail. It might be better to just admire grading cards from safe distance. mean, thanks for watching the video, but if you aren't interested in grading then don't let others pressure you into it. And if you pulled huge card with your kids or your partner or something and you're wondering if you should grade it, hell yeah, grade that puppy and preserve that memory think that's an awesome idea. Listen, last year got my original Japanese starters graded. Psst! Hey, you found the secret in this episode! Leave comment saying: like my popcorn toasty!" so know you found the secret! (don't tell anyone where you found it!) And think that's really cool, you might not think that's really cool and that's fine, because they're my cards. This whole hobby is about collecting the things you like, but when you do find card you like you might want to pre-grade it before sending it in. Pre-grading is simply the process of grading the card yourself before sending it away this can help you determine whether or not the cards might score grade of 10. This is very common practice, and skill you can develop over time. We're going to look at four categories: centering, surface, edges, and corners. Centering is the first thing like to look at. We're going to observe the symmetry of the card and check if the image is centered on the actual card stock. There are tools you can get that help, like this one, and there are apps you can use that will calculate it for you, but with some experience you can eyeball it pretty well. We're going to compare the top to the bottom and the left to the right. If one side is thick the other side must be thin. Sometimes looking at the corners can help. To get CGC pristine 10 label or Beckett's black label, the centering has to be perfect 5050. This means that it's perfectly centered. Otherwise you can usually qualify for regular 10 on centering with 45/55 split. and by the way depending on which service you choose you'll want to check that company's grading guidelines while you pre-grade. They are little bit different. For example PSA is cool with 45/55 centering on the front but they'll actually allow for 75/25 on the reverse and still give you grade of 10. Next, we want to look at the edges. Sometimes edges will look nice, but other times they'll look rough or frayed. Unfortunately this is the result of the manufacturing process, so you'll sometimes see this if the card is pack-fresh. This should lead you to the corners. They should have nice round shape with no whitening. The card stock is white but of course it's covered by the ink. If some of the white shows through on the edges or corners, this is called whitening. This is most commonly found on played cards but unfortunately it can be byproduct of the manufacturing process as well, so again some brand-new cards can have minor whitening. Finally, we want to look at the surface of the card front and back. Holofoil cards are highly susceptible to scratches. Some cards have texture and this is graded as well. Sometimes it can be defective from the factory unfortunately, so you want to inspect closely and make sure all those little ridges and valleys are consistent. And when we're inspecting the surface, you might find it useful to use magnifying glass and utilize different lighting. This will sometimes reveal small dents or creases. Unfortunately this kind of damage will knock the grade down considerably with most grading companies. have Blastoise that appears to be gem mint but actually has very small indentation knocking its grade down severely. Most grading services are going to grade each of these four categories on scale of 1 to 10 and then use those individual values to generate the overall grade. Some even put the subgrades on their labels like Beckett. If they give all four subgrades 10 then you qualify for their Black Label, one of the most desirable grades in the industry. And keep it in mind that not all cards grade the same. non-holo doesn't scratch easily so it'll probably get good surface grade, but some other cards have foil or glossy surfaces, which can easily be damaged. And each grading company has scale on its website so you can make an educated guess at your card's potential grade. Okay, now find the raw price and the graded price of your card, and compare the two. Don't forget to subtract the grading fee. This will give you good estimate of your costs and potential profit. Listen, this is going to feel intimidating at first but you'll get very good very quickly with some practice. Pre-grading isn't necessary step if you're just doing this for fun, but if you're shooting for 10 then would recommend it. Placing your order and packing up your submission is the most intimidating step. Pretty much all services offer different tiers or packages. The faster you want your cards graded, the more expensive it's going to be. But you can get discount by sending in more cards. Once you've chosen the tier that works best for you,, it's time to pack up your cards. Some grading services are strict with how you package your cards. If you package them in way that makes it hard to unpack it could be liability for the company. They don't want to damage your cards if they're forced to use scissors or peel sticky tape, for example. If you screw up they might charge you extra or even send your cards back, although I've never actually had this happen yet. Each company is going to have different packing rules so make sure you read their Guides online. Alternatively, there are lots of YouTube submission guides for each service, but if you do this, you are putting your trust in that YouTuber so just be careful out there be aware of that. Once your cards arrive at the grading facility you should be able to follow through the grading process online. In most cases, you won't be charged until your cards are graded and ready to be shipped back to you. By the way, you usually have to declare value and this is for shipping Insurance. Since grading card usually increases its value the insurance needs to cover the potential loss of your graded card, not the raw card. If you still find this overwhelming, using middleman service is an option too. Recently GameStop has become retail middleman service. This is nice because all you have to do is drop off your cards and you can basically piggyback off of GameStop's discount. The downside to using GameStop or another middleman service is that you're putting your trust in someone else and that's decision you have to make for yourself. But even after all this you might be holding card and wondering to yourself: is this worth grading? Having your card graded is kind of silly, you're paying someone to have an opinion, then encase it in plastic, and then all of sudden you can sell it for lot of money? But it's also pretty cool to send your card away and have it come back feeling like little trophy you can put on display. If you want to try it out I'd say go for it