I too hate slabbing, especially on comic books where it makes them
unreadable. Why not start slabbing particularly fine examples of food, so it
will become un-eatable?
But here is how it will likely go:
An unnamed auction house or two will start auctioning more and more of these
monstrosities. They will auction for two to ten times the regular prices (we
will never see the high bidders, so we won't know if the results are real,
or if it is a house bidder "buying" from themselves).
But people will want in on this "free money". and they will start submitting
their own lobbies to be slabbed, and for a while they will get great
results, and that will encourage them to slab lots more, and others will
start doing the same.
Then an unnamed dealer will have an "all-slabbed" auction on eBay, and the
results will be amazing, and everyone will start to sing the praises of
slabbing (except for a few old fogies like me, Phil Edwards, Rich Halegua,
and others) and we will quit selling lobbies altogether, and they will be
purchased by the same investors who have overrun other hobbies, and before
too much longer a lot of the new "collectors" will say, "I only buy slabbed
lobbies, because I KNOW what I am getting", as if buying an item that some
paid employee looked at for a minute is more trustworthy than buying an item
from a dealer who has collected and bought and sold lobbies for 20 or 30
years!
At least that's how it played out in comic books, baseball cards, and coins.
Some questions:
1) WHO owns the grading service who slabs these (and if a major auction owns
even a small percentage of them, then isn't that a massive conflict of
interest)?
2) Every top dealer (except for one) has admitted they would have been
fooled by the Haggard fakes, and in fact most were, and a leading restorer
was fooled by a recreation of an ultra-expensive one-sheet. Isn't that proof
that the last thing we need is some new people being paid to authenticate
and grade lobby cards?
3) In other hobbies (comic books, baseball cards, and coins), slabbing has
siphoned millions of dollars out of collector's hands, and has driven out
lots of the collectors who have a love of the items, and brought in a lot of
"investor" types, and has created a "bubble" in prices not unlike that seen
in the stock market or real estate markets. Is that what we want for our
hobby?
Bruce
On Thu, Jul 1, 2010 at 1:45 AM, Phil Edwards <p...@cinemarts.com> wrote:
> I would never bid on a slabbed anything.
> The reasons are painfully obvious, aren't they?
> Phil E.
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> *From:* JOHN REID Vintage Movie Memorabilia <johnr...@moviemem.com>
> *To:* MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU
> *Sent:* Thursday, July 01, 2010 1:03 PM
> *Subject:* [MOPO] Slabbed Lobby Cards at Heritage
>
> I have been browsing through the latest Heritage catalogue and once again
> it is very impressive. One thing that will be of interest to many is that
> amount of "slabbed" lobby cards that appear in this auction. A great many
> look to be sealed in some sort of plastic with a grading by CGC whoever they
> may be.
>
> I have never been too keen on the idea of slabbed lobby cards and wonder
> what you guys think about them. My concerns are:
>
>
> - Slabbing and grading the cards would add to the overall cost of the
> cards and surely it would be hardly worthwhile on lobby cards of medium
> value - say $200.00
> - What materials are used when slabbing the cards? Is the plastic and
> materials used to slab the card acid free, uv protected, etc?
> - It looks as though the plastic may be flexible ie it could be bent or
> creased. Does slabbing protect the card from any damage?
> - How does slabbing affect framing?
> - What happens if sunlight affects the card?
> - If damage occurrs whilst the card is slabbed can the card be
> regraded?
> - How will this "trend" affect lobby cards that have not been slabbed?
> - Will the value of lobby cards be increased or decreased by slabbing?
> I know that some collectors will prefer to have the card in its original
> state and will avoid purchasing cards that have been slabbed. No doubt,
> there will be others who will like the idea.
>
>
> Regards
> John
>
>
> Website: www.moviemem.com
>
> JOHN REID VINTAGE MOVIE MEMORABILIA
> PO Box 92
> Palm Beach
> Qld 4221
> Australia
> Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com
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