When the market spiked in early 2021, people were sending in everything to get graded! Didn’t really matter—overproduced rookies, Jordan and Kobe base cards…and it was ALL selling for huge premium.
There’s a reason there are over 42,000 PSA graded Prizm Zion Williamson rookies alone (someone got a PSA 1 lol).
But things have calmed down, and a lot of people were left holding the bag. With BGS and PSA taking over a year (and those levels being shut down), tons of people got their cheap graded cards back realizing they were going to lose money on everything they sent in!
Things are getting back to normal, and cards aren’t being sent is at the rate they were!
So…with more prudence being necessary so you don’t lose your shirt, let’s talk about why you wouldn’t send in cards to get graded!
7 Times Grading Sports cards Isn’t Worth It
Here are the times you may want to find solutions other than grading:
- It’s a Personal Collection (PC) Card
- It’s in Obviously Poor Condition
- It’s a Low-Level Card
- You Need the Card to Grade Gem Mint or Better
- You Don’t Have Extra Cash
- It’s an Extremely Rare Card
- You Need the Card in Hand for Flipping
1. It’s a Personal Collection (PC) Card
If you’re a die-hard Kobe fan, and you’ve got a nice auto of him, many believe there’s no reason to grade this. You could keep it in a top loader, or even a one-touch magnetic holder (here are the ones I use), and put it up on a little stand.
The other school of thought is that if you love the card that much and want to keep it forever, then you should grade it to protect it. Also, once you die, it makes it much easier (and more valuable) for your kids to sell it off, should they choose.
That LeBron silver above is one of my PC cards. If it was in better condition, I would’ve graded it. But keeping it in that one-touch is good enough for me!
2. It’s in Obviously Poor Condition
Perhaps the most obvious one, but unless you’ve got a Mickey Mantle rookie or an ‘86 Jordan, most of the time you shouldn’t get a card in poor condition graded.
Really old cards are the exception to this, but otherwise, don’t bother.
3. It’s a Low-Level Card
I don’t grade anything but non-base superstar rookies, or a rare insert of an all-time player.
If you grade your low-level rookies, or even base star rookies these days (“base is dead!”), the odds of you ever being able to recoup your money is slim-to-none.
It’s truthfully better to hold your rookies and see who’s going to pop. How many people didn’t sleeve their Jokic rookies because he was a second round pick?
This way, you’re only grading players that you know are already stars, instead of paying for the premium and then hope they keep it up. This is why I sleeve every single rookie I get…just in case.
This listing on eBay made me smile because someone obviously jumped the gun a bit on getting this graded:
4. You Need the Card to Grade Gem Mint or Better
Similar to the last one, needing a 9.5 or a 10 to turn a profit is often a losing proposition.
For me, the exception is if it’s a card that I’m okay with it coming back a 9 and I break even or lose slightly. These would be players that I believe strongly will increase in value later, or it’s a card I don’t mind holding for my PC (Lakers, baby!).
How do you know if you need a Gem Mint grade to turn a profit? Let’s head on over to eBay and take a look.
First, make sure you’re looking only at sold listings! Otherwise, you’re trying to compare the value of your card to whatever insane price a random person wants to list their card for!
You also need to realize that you won’t be able to find every card on eBay. SGC cards are a good example. While they’re a mainstay in the market, they’re not as ubiquitous as PSA is.
You can do some guesswork here—are there players of similar value on eBay graded with SGC?
You can even check out PSA listings. If a PSA 9 is selling for not much more than raw, then be sure that it’s not a great bet to grade with SGC.
I put together a deep-dive into looking up the values of your sports cards that you can read here!
5. You Don’t Have Extra Cash
For any of the Big 3 grading companies (PSA, SGC, BGS), you need to have some cash on hand.
SGC is the cheapest, and they’re $15 a pop. Expect to spend $18-$20 with taxes/shipping.
There are some companies out there that will do it for $10-$12 a card, but don’t expect the market as a whole to treat those with much legitimacy.
If you’re cash-strapped, your best option is likely to just sell it raw.
6. It’s an Extremely Rare Card
I find this to be an interesting discussion.
In the Facebook groups I’m in, I commonly see posts like this:
“BANGER! Just hit a (INSERT STAR PLAYER) patch auto 1/1!! 🔥 Grade or sell raw??! 💪”
About half the responses say “PSA Express Immediately!” or “Fly that personally to PSA and HAND it to them!”
The other half say “Why grade it? You set the market on a 1/1!”
I’m more in the camp that you should grade any big card. No one is going to pay less if it you’ve got an amazing card graded a 9 or higher.
In fact, this Patrick Mahomes rookie card sold for 4.3 million:
You can see the seller clearly didn’t lose anything by it grading only an 8.5. However, I think it’s possible a graded 9.5 or even a 10 would’ve bumped up the value nicely.
Why not grade it?
However, I did want to present the argument that for ROI sake, many big-time collectors will tell you to just sell the thing raw.
7. You Need the Card in Hand for Flipping
Sending cards off to get graded is going to take time.
If the season is about to start, and you think Paolo Banchero is going to take off, you’d like to have his rookies in had to sell.
Of course, there are some cards you just get graded no matter what, no matter when. I’m not talking about those cards, but rather in the lower end where grading is less of a surefire proposition of a great return.
The exception is SGC, which only takes 5 business days (give or take). But if you’re a PSA or BGS die hard, timing can be tricky.
If you’re interested in flipping sports cards for money, this should be your next read:
=> 5-Step Guide: How Do You Start Flipping Sports Cards?
Alternatives to Grading
I prefer to keep most of my collection raw because I don’t like the hassle of grading. Sure, I’ll do it if it’s the obvious play to increase the value, but I prefer not to do it.
I prefer to put my cards into magnetic holders!
I actually like how they look just about as much as a graded card. They’re much smaller, and don’t have the messy labels on the cards.
You can take cards in and out of them (in case they get scratched), and they still look and feel really solid.
Oh, and they cost like $2 apiece.
Here are the magnetic holders that I use for dozens of my cards, including my favorite PC cards!