Robert Grades

Yea, my original post was from back in May. OBVIOUSLY things have changed. But I really don't care anymore and only returned to stop notifications from posts and thought I'd chime in. Card market is gonna be dead for a few years now after the over-saturation of the last 3-4 years culminating with the pandemic shortage year last year (which brought out my original post). Sports are dying and no one really cares anymore for over paid political sports players. Hopefully the end of "professional" sports is near, it can't get here soon enough. Hang on to what you got, it may be the last of it.

Selling their products online solves nothing, except now the guys that jammed the stores will sit at home and do the same thing online. And Panini selling RETAIL to card shops doesn't do anything either except create a "middleman" who is jacking the prices. The whole thing has me pissed at the hobby shops. I am glad i don't have a son or daughter who wants to collect cards and I have to tell them sorry can't afford a box of 10 packs of cards for $100 + because of this. This "hobby" is saturated right now. The 1st victims are people like me, the second victims will be the flippers when they can't make their $$$ back (especially after the 3-5 month wait for grading) and the best is last, the Hobby Shops, I honestly can't wait for some of them to go out of business, it'll be the best thing for the "Hobby", if you can still call it that. Retail needs to be in stores, period.

I get that "dealers" and "hardcore" collectors want the "rare" items and want to turn a profit, but they are are pulling the same tactics they use for Hobby boxes and packs and doing it with Retail boxes and packs, I thought that was the reasoning for having "Hobby and Retail". I just want to be able to buy retail packs, fat packs and boxes for their listed price. There is so much duplicate and "commons" in Retail, which is fine, if I'm paying list price, but these "shop guys" are buying them up too, either hoping to get the 1 in 5,000 insert or as I suspect just to be jerks and make a profit. Either way it's BS for collectors like me who just like the enjoyment of putting together a set. I can only hope the market becomes so saturated with over produced cards that they aren't worth anything to the big store guys and then maybe I can start again. Until then, quits for me.

and I imagine Walmart may soon go the same way. Target has announced as of yesterday 5/14/21 they will no longer sell sports cards or pokeman etc.... They have been selling them behind the counter at customer service and allowing 1 pack or 2 packs (depending on type of card) Walmart has them behind the counter also with a 2 box maximum per visit. The customer service rep there tells me they had to do that because the local card shops would send in guys 4-8 at a time to buy the maximum and then they would go out in the lot to their cars and change their clothes and come back in to buy more. They then go and list the card boxes for sale on their website with a slightly jacked up price and actually put (walmart) next to "retail" Topps, Panini and Leaf are an absolute joke if you try to buy ANYTHING from their sites, all boxes are gone in MINUTES and probably because of these same vulture scumbags. The last time I was able to put a complete set together of any sport by hand was late 2016. Time to walk away from this "hobby" for awhile. If you have similiar stories please post, as I feel I'm not the only one experiencing this.

Some people like to have a complete set graded. I am working a set and want all cards to be above 8. A few though have come back 6-7. As long as I am paying the same fee(s) why should anyone care what I am having graded? Unless you're a flipper whose turn around times are being affected. If thats the case, than pay a higher fee to get em' back sooner. You're cards are no better than mine, so get in line.

NO. And I will leave it at that.

I had this Tom Brady graded here a few weeks ago. Does anyone think if I sent it back for re-grading WITH subs, I might get a 10? Is that possible or just throwing money out the window.