Often over the years I've read blog posts or, more likely, those on social media that invite a discussion on graded cards. My standard response -- if I do respond -- is I don't believe in graded cards in almost all cases and that I have very few graded cards in my collection. Then I feel like I have to explain that -- if I don't believe in graded cards, why do I have some in my collection? And how many do I have? I've never known that part. So this post is about figuring that out, getting to know my graded cards and why they have the gall to exist in my collection when 99.999998% of the cards in the collection are frolicking free in the breeze as is their constitutional right. For starters, I have nine graded cards ... well, eight cards and one coin, as you can see here. Any other graded card that has come into my possession, I have broken out. All but two of the cards/coin were sent to me by others, because I have never specifically attempted to buy a graded...
I stopped at the monthly card show Saturday. It was the second straight weekend card show I had attended. This would have been crazy talk in the first 10 years of my blog, but it's something that could easily happen two or three times a year now -- and if I wanted to do a little more traveling around the state, I might be able to go to a show nearly every week over the next six months. I'm not quite that obsessed. Two in two weeks is quite amazing enough for me. So you may remember in the show write-up last week that I said I actually finished the show with cash left over. That means I carried that cash into Saturday's show. I padded it just a little, but I budgeted about half the amount for this show that I did for last week's. It turned out to be plenty because I left this show with money left over, too! I'd like to blame the expanding number of tables selling Pokemon and such -- it's getting so pervasive that I'm starting to see a world where the...