When it comes to baseball cards, the term “raw” is used to describe a card that has not been graded or encapsulated by a professional grading service. Raw cards refer to cards that are still in their original packaging and have not been sent off to be authenticated and assigned a grade by companies like PSA, BGS, or SGC.
Collectors and investors will often refer to their ungraded baseball card collections as their “raw” cards. This is because the condition and authenticity of the cards have not been verified by a professional third party service. Raw cards are essentially in their natural state as purchased directly from packs, boxes, or loose in collections.
Grading raw baseball cards involves sending them to a professional company to have the card carefully examined. Grading services will inspect various attributes that determine the card’s condition like centering, corners, edges and surface. They will also verify the card is authentic and not reprint or counterfeit. Once graded, the card is encased in a tamper-proof plastic holder called a slab with the assigned numerical grade clearly displayed.
This grading process provides several key benefits over raw cards. First, it establishes an objective record of the card’s condition which helps standardized pricing in the marketplace. Second, slabbing greatly helps preserve the card long-term by protecting it in the slab case. And third, grading authentication deters scams and forgeries by verifying authenticity. As a result, graded cards are preferred over raw by many serious collectors and investors.
Raw cards do have some advantages of their own that explain their continued popularity even without grading. The biggest is cost – it’s significantly cheaper to collect and store raw cards compared to paying grading service fees for each individual card. Second, raw cards maintain liquidity and flexibility that graded cards do not. They can be more easily resold or traded compared to cards locked away in slabs. And finally, some view raw cards as a bit more “organic” or tied closer to the hobby’s history since they remain unaltered in their original state.
In terms of value, there is no universal formula for comparing raw cards to their graded counterparts. Higher end, elite vintage cards typically gain the most value boost from top grades due to their inherent scarcity. But for modern era and lower grade vintage cards, raw can sometimes equal or surpass a lower obtained grade. Condition is obviously king, and an extremely well-preserved raw card may rival or beat a lower graded version. Market demand and collector preferences also sway raw versus graded value equations for certain players or sets.
When discussing raw baseball cards, it’s also important to distinguish between factory-sealed wax packs, boxes, and cases versus single loose cards. Sealed vintage products containing raw cards inside appreciate remarkably due to rarity, nostalgia, and potential hit card rewards. Loose vintage/modern singles do not gain nearly the same cachet, but top-condition pieces can still command strong raw prices depending on scarcity and player.
The baseball card collecting and investing industry now almost universally recognizes the term “raw” to refer to ungraded cards that exist in their inherent state purchased from original sources. While the authentication and preservation benefits of third-party grading make slabs the preferred format for high-end pieces, raw cards retain utility for building broad sets, flexy budgets, and accessing different areas of the ever-evolving hobby marketplace. Both have their legitimate places according to individual collector interests and strategies.
