>mfw this next month>>48460132nice I wish my family wasn't horrified at the idea I spend money on pokemon
>>48458776From auctions? Never, generally of course high paid auctions compared to others of the same card would help you find the better condition ones, but consider this.
>NMCard A has 3 listings at NM, they sell respectively 100, 105, and 150.
Why did that last card sell for 150 when they're all NM? Well, compare the card backs and surfaces. The cards that sold for 100-105 look similar, but the 150 has 1 or 2 less edgewear white marks and just BARELY looks cleaner.
The last one of the 3 is likely the one that would score the highest grade, if we're going based purely off damage to the card. You also have to consider centering, all 3 cards can have the exact same front and back when it comes to wear however if 1 of the 3 has better centering that one is the one likely to receive a 9 or 10.
The biggest factor to decide on what a card will grade at is what you can see, so centering is easy to check, edgewear and surface marks can be checked but easier in person. Buying raw graded cards can be a gamble, but if you look for certain things then you can dwindle down the numbers much easier.
