🧱

The Slab Collector

They don’t care about raw cards — if it’s not encapsulated in plastic, it’s not worthy. Their display cases look like a PSA warehouse.

🕵

The Player Purist

They pick a player (or two) and go all-in. Doesn’t matter if it’s a rookie, base, insert, or cereal box promo — if it’s their guy, it’s in the PC.

🧓

The Nostalgia Hunter

Only wants cards that remind them of childhood — junk wax, 90s inserts, and maybe a few beat-up Topps cards from grandpa’s shoebox.

💰

The Flipper

They’re in it for the margins — constantly “buying low, selling high,” scanning comps, and refreshing eBay sold listings like it’s the stock market.

🧠

The Historian

Knows every set, print run, and oddball release. Their collection tells the story of the hobby itself — from tobacco cards to Prizm.

💎

The Chaser

Lives for the thrill of ripping wax. Doesn’t matter what the product is — they just need to feel that pack tear and chase that next big pull.

🧩

The Set Builder

Carefully tracks down every card in a checklist, crossing off numbers one by one. Completion is their art form.

🖼

The Aesthetic Collector

They collect based on looks — card design, photography, or color match. Couldn’t care less about value; it just has to “look right.”

🧬

The Oddball Collector

They love the weird stuff — food issues, regional promos, misprints, or cards that came from cereal boxes and gas stations.

🔢

The Serial Number Sniper

Every card must have the perfect numbering — jersey matches, 1/1s, 69/99s, or anything with a fun significance.

🧤

The Team Loyalist

Lives and breathes one team. Every card, no matter how obscure, has to wear their favorite colors.

The Evolution of Card Grading: From Protection to Profit

Card grading began with good intentions. In the late 1990s, companies like PSA, Beckett, and later SGC introduced grading to bring trust and consistency to the hobby. The goal was simple — to verify authenticity, combat counterfeits, and remove the guesswork from evaluating condition. Collectors could finally trade with confidence, knowing a professional, third-party opinion stood behind the card’s grade. It was meant to protect both the cards and the community.

Over time, though, the focus began to shift. What started as a safeguard for the hobby slowly evolved into a marketplace built around numbers on a label. The subjective human eye grading a card from 1 to 10 became the ultimate decider of value — sometimes more than the player, rarity, or historical meaning of the card itself. A small surface scratch or slightly off-center border could mean thousands of dollars in difference, not because the card changed, but because the grade did.

Today, grading has helped fuel a culture of flipping, speculation, and high-dollar transactions. Many collectors chase perfect 10s instead of the stories behind the cards — the memories of pulling them from packs or following the players who defined their childhoods. While grading still has its place in protecting and authenticating, it’s fair to say that somewhere along the way, the love of the game took a backseat to the love of the grade.

Thinking the bottom of a slab is better placement for an extra gold over clear label.

Don’t want to take away from a BGS label or a card with the extra info of a card.

Decided to use gold letters on clear labels for my BGS PC Cards.

Would love to hear your thoughts and ideas, and also what could make this idea better?

PSA 9 vs BGS 9.5.... Long-term which do you prefer?