For collectors who self submit for grading, how long can you go?
Gemyanks10
Posts: 1,164 ✭✭✭
I’m curious on how long collectors can grade their cards in “one sit” in preparation to submit before either having to take a break, or put it aside for who knows how long and then come back to it?
For me, it depends on the set and the issue itself. It seems that certain sets are easier to grade than others if that makes sense. I can usually go 2-3 hours and after that, I need to regroup as the quality of my grading skills goes down. Maybe it’s an attention span issue? I have respect for graders that can sit in a cubicle all day and not only grade cards, but grade cards that they may not even like! Could you imagine having to take a loupe to Kirk Cameron Growing Pains cards, or Michael Jackson cards? I’d probably have a psychaotic episode before it was over...
Anyhow, what are some of your stories? Do you feel like your skills diminish as time goes on without a break? What do you do to stay focused?
Comments
My process is a several month process. I generally try to sub over 100 cards at a time to take advantage of the bulk rate since I'm more of a 1970s-1990s subber. I look through stuff and get a potential submission pile. I'll go through that potential pile from time to time and either poo-poo the card or put it in the "for sure" pile. At that point, the for sures get logged into a spreadsheet. The poo-poo cards go into a box to potentially review at a later time or a do not review again box. I have never done a full submission in a day's time or a week's time. But I suppose if I was in a time crunch to meet a monthly special deadline (haven't been any good specials for ME in a LONG TIME), I could hammer it out over a couple of nights.
I can sort thru stuff night after night and put in the "possible" pile. Lower or higher grade bigger money cards easily go into the "for sure" pile. Because I feel I have the same issue of getting worn down, I will go thru the pile of possibles at least 3-4 more times. Newer stuff I scrutinize to make sure I think they are going to get 10's and older stuff, say 60-70's commons I might look at to confirm 7's-8's. I also cross reference to see what the market is for them. I don't have to make a huge profit on every card. I know I'm going to get some decent hits with each submission that will balance things out. I just need to know that on a sub of 100 cards I can make about $5 on the ones that aren't going to bring bigger money to cover grading and ebay/paypal fees when i sell them. Then when I go to add them to the submission sheet, I will do one last review. So, to get back to the original topic, I just look at them multiple times over several days knowing I will be in varying degrees of mentality. And it is funny how you are sure on one day a card is a perfect for a slab that you look at it another day and ask yourself.... "what was I thinking?".
It's kind of like we were separated at birth. Pretty much my MO in terms of making a few bucks, reviewing current market, and the balancing things out with a decent hit.
. And it is funny how you are sure on one day a card is a perfect for a slab that you look at it another day and ask yourself.... "what was I thinking?".
This! It’s happened to me on pretty much every submission I’ve ever done, which is a sure reason for me to walk away from it after a few hours.
Flip side, I had several on my most recent sub from the 1970s that came back as 10s and I had to ask myself why didn't I sub this sooner? Most were in my review later pile, but some were in my limbo pile.
I simply "grade" by what is shown there on the card, not what I wish was there or wasn't there. For me, usually the doubts on a cards chance to pass will be exposed on the first or second go over.