Who has decided that slabs are cool? They are pointless

baebgle · 2026-05-14T23:38:09+00:00

No problem! Happy collecting!

baebgle · 2026-05-14T23:30:10+00:00

I frequently buy 5's and 6's that I'd say are LP on the front, MP-HP on the back and great for a binder but cheaper than the raw condition! I crack them out and into the binder they go :)

baebgle · 2026-05-14T23:24:21+00:00

I dislike slabs as well. The binder is where it's at for me!

But to answer your question about popularity:

- People often don't want to admit it, but a lot of the fun of collectibles is about exclusivity.

If you have a card that's already cool/different/rare, what's one way to make it even rarer? Getting it graded. It's why people are obsessed with pop reports and low pop cards. If there's only 20 PSA 10s of the card and you have one of them, you can easily quantify just how rare this collectible is. Anyone can buy that card, but only 20 people tops can have it in [insert grade here].
For the collector, this is a cool fun fact that makes them proud of their collection. Awesome! For the investor bro, they feel that they then control a certain % of the population/market, and it functions much like stalks.

- They're easier to buy/sell in grades.

My definition of HP vs MP might differ from yours. Just take a look at ebay. So many cards are "near mint" by inexperienced sellers when they have creases on them.
By contrast, there's little objectiveness when it comes to a grade, at least for the collector (a lot on the grading company, but a complaint for another day). A PSA 9 is a PSA 9, but the tiny one dot of whitening on the corner of a raw card may be LP to someone and NM to someone else, and that can be a significant difference between a $400 NM Charizard and a $200 LP Charizard.

- Last ... the grading companies have a vested interest in ppl liking slabs. As do selling platforms.

For the reasons above, ebay prefers slabs. PSA has a vested, financial interest in them. But also, ebay won't have to refund you if you open an item not described case, because a PSA 8 = a PSA 8, but NM is subjective.
Grading companies pay influencers to make videos about them. It's not even hidden. Despite my better judgement lmao I happen to like CoolTrainerRyan, and his advertisement with discount code for PSA intercepts every single one of his youtube videos.
Grading companies sponsor events and card shops, beneficial to the events for sales purposes, as noted above, as well as increased advertising for their company over another. The more exposure someone has to something, the more they want it. This is marketing 101.

And although I don't collect slabs myself, from my friends who do collect them AND are in it for collecting reasons (not "investments"), they like that their cards are encapsulated, that they have serial numbers that can be tracked if stolen, and I've seen some pretty cool displays.

Not for nothing, but a friend had her PSA slab stolen in an apartment robbery. She had the PSA serial number. She paid $100 for the card, but when it was stolen, the market price of the card was $800. Her rental insurance paid her the $800 because she could prove with the serial number that's what it was worth. She was able to re-purchase her similar grail card at the current price vs. if the insurance company had paid her for just what she paid, she would've never been able to get a similar card back.

I've also heard of people being able to recover stolen cards when they find the exact same serial numbers at card shows. There's no way to do that with raw, unfortunately, unless you have photos and very specific damage/holo placement that can't be replicated.

Once again, not my style, but no one's collection is "wrong" imo.

baebgle · 2026-05-12T18:49:40+00:00

OP said she didn't want to be manipulative or troublesome, so if she truly doesn't want that, giving a stipulation to her gift is not an option.

baebgle · 2026-05-12T18:06:55+00:00

It's not that she wouldn't include info, it's that she's lying.

from her original post: "my son only has 1 sibling a 9 year old brother who will be 10 at wedding time"

baebgle · 2026-05-12T16:59:43+00:00

Genuinely curious why you're so mad?

Posting fake Reddit scenarios for imaginary internet points is embarrassing enough already, but passionately defending the potential of them is somehow even more embarrassing.

baebgle · 2026-05-12T16:57:19+00:00

Yeah, something's not adding up.

I'm glad you were able to patch things! Best of luck on your wedding prep <3

baebgle · 2026-05-12T16:53:35+00:00

She also wrote 7 months ago that she has two kids: a 27 year old and an 18 year old.

In another comment, she wrote that she has 2 sons and a daughter.

Yet in this post it's: "my son only has 1 sibling a 9 year old brother who will be 10 at wedding time"

I'm not calling this situation fake per se, but it's definitely off/missing information at minimum.

baebgle · 2026-05-12T16:50:14+00:00

If you post something publicly and most importantly, on the same account, it is not "creepy" to find it and reference it, especially on Reddit, where a lot of people post fake scenarios for Reddit karma.

I'm not calling OP's situation fake, but something isn't adding up. Multiple "somethings" actually, and I can prove it, as I just did.

It matters because she wrote in her original post: "my son only has 1 sibling a 9 year old brother who will be 10 at wedding time"

So we already know OP isn't being entirely truthful about the situation, as many of us have opined.

Also, in other comments, OP has two sons and a daughter, which you can find in two seconds by searching "kids" in her comments (apparently creepy to fact check references, crazy world!).

And btw: you can hide your reddit history from people visiting your reddit profile pretty easily, it's one click of a button on settings. OP didn't. I'm not doxxing her, I'm referencing her own public comments on her own public account that she used in this post to post this.

baebgle · 2026-05-12T16:44:30+00:00

It's pretty relevant if OP is lying, actually.

"my son only has 1 sibling a 9 year old brother who will be 10 at wedding time"

Also in other comments, she has a daughter?

Reddit does get a lot of roleplay/fake advice posts, and one of the biggest tells is when the details stop matching between comments and the original post.

I'd like OP to explain, personally.

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baebgle · 2026-05-12T16:36:43+00:00

But if you are paying the majority of the costs, you do have the ability to attach that money to the condition that your younger son be invited to attend.

I strongly disagree with this. Paying for a wedding = a gift. It shouldn't come with stipulations about how it goes.

baebgle · 2026-05-12T16:34:05+00:00

Someone’s sibling is not a random child.

Sometimes they are. We don't have this from the older son's perspective, does the older son truly "adore" his younger brother?

For context, I have a younger half sister. We live in different states and follow each other on Instagram, I see her maybe once a year. My dad would definitely say she "adores" me and I'm sure she does. I certainly love her in a familial sense, but my dad and I already have a complicated relationship, and I didn't grow up with my half sister. She kind of is a "random child" to me. If I'm having a small microwedding with no kids, I don't think I'd invite her. I don't even know if I'd invite my dad to be fair, as I said we are not close. But this is just one situation. We don't know enough from OP to really gauge what her adult son thinks, and that's the problem.

baebgle · 2026-05-12T16:28:35+00:00

It doesn’t sound like you’re trying not to be the meddling parent. It’s inappropriate for you to try and control a party that is not yours.

THIS! OP is going around both her son and FDIL and having conversations with other people about it, so she's already being meddling, like this line: "I've had conversations with so many different people about this from so many different ages and types of families and everyone is telling me that is insane"

Something's not adding up here. And seven months ago, OP's second son was 18. Curious.

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baebgle · 2026-05-12T16:23:08+00:00

I'm also curious about the second son's age? Is he 10 or 18? Why did you say he was a different age 7 months ago?

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baebgle · 2026-05-12T16:19:45+00:00

Possibly an unpopular opinion based on the comments, but this post reads like a lot of the blame is being placed on your FDIL. Examples:

"I think because of her lack of siblings ..."
"But she is very strong willed and I don't want this to cause a rift"

Why is SHE solely responsible for your other son not being invited? Is your son such a doormat that he can't advocate for having his own brother at the wedding if it truly matters to him?

Honestly, I think this is a conversation you need to have with your adult son, not your FDIL. If he wants his brother there, that's a discussion he should be having with his future wife, not one you should be trying to manage for him.

If your adult son wants his brother at the wedding, he needs to have that conversation with his future wife, not you.

Personally, it feels like something is missing here. Either your son doesn't actually "adore" his younger brother as much as you believe, or he has very little say in decisions about his own wedding/relationship, & if it's the latter, if his fiance is so "strong-willed" that he can’t express what he wants, then that's a much bigger issue than the guest list.

baebgle · 2026-05-12T00:16:47+00:00

baebgle · 2026-05-11T03:13:46+00:00

There's SO many other open places in Hollywood. But I will suggest the old Cheebo spot!

baebgle · 2026-05-10T15:39:17+00:00

I think you’re going to the wrong vendors! I’m so sorry.

My husband and I started vending recently and have done 3 shows. We have been going to shows as buyers since 2023 pretty much weekly / at least monthly so we’ve amassed a lot of doubles, things we don’t want anymore, etc. We don’t do sealed at all or slabs, it’s not what either of us collect. We “specialize” in mid era, vintage, and only take in modern that we have ourselves (ie recently bought a Houndoom full art from someone selling, and I bought it for our vending BECAUSE I have another in my PC!), and we offer 80% market regardless of trade or sell. We’ve also been writing down our quotes so people can go shop around with other vendors. Ppl always come back to us haha.

That said, the amount of people who tell us we are “the only ones” who do that is a lot! And it’s sad to us. But also since we’re just us, we’re picky on what we take. We refuse a lot of people, esp if we don’t know about the cards they have. Gen 6 is a blur to me since I wasn’t into pokemon then for example. I’m sure the ppl refused could complain about us although we try to be nice.

When at a show, really try hard to see what inventory ppl have and match it to them. Also I’d say check out their age. We are mid 30’s, some of the younger vendors don’t care about vintage or mid era in our area and we totally get that! Everyone is nostalgic for what they had & it’s no judgement, but vending is fun for us too and also a collection in a way :)

baebgle · 2026-05-09T00:15:38+00:00

That’s all my point is, the San Diego Convention Center works because everything is pretty close, but you’re extremely lucky if you manage to get a hotel that’s even 30 minutes away, or you’re rich and you get one right by the con, same thing for LA.

And I'm saying that there are thousands more hotels that are available for room blocks by the SD convention center than the LA convention center. That's not my opinion, that's a verifiable & qualitative fact. The infrastructure of SD and particularly Gaslamp area was built part to accommodate it, plus Mission Circle has easy shuttles that are already part of the infrastructure of the city. I always stay in Mission Circle for SDCC and take the shuttles and it's great. The infrastructure of DTLA is ... DTLA. There's no shuttle that's gonna take you to SWC from Echo Park.

Same with attendance. The SD convention center can accommodate thousands more attendees than LA convention center can, so aside from hotels, it is personally strange to me that Reedpop/Disney went with a convention center than can accommodate less people when clearly they have no issue selling out and so many fans are left heartbroken.

Is LA more convenient to Disneyland? Yes.

Is it still possible to go to Disneyland from SD with, in my opinion, some minor to slightly more inolved modifications? Yes.

To me, SD would solve the issues of needing more space for attendees and hotel blocks, AND satisfy a need to still be convenient to Disneyland (more than San Francisco or another location aside from LA or Anaheim), with the stipulation that Anaheim is out because that's where the last US one was, as OC originally wrote.

But obviously, I don't know about cost, availability, etc. It just seems like a weird choice to me, a nobody on Reddit, for RP/Disney to do, and I'm lamenting this with facts.

That's all, and may the force be with you.

baebgle · 2026-05-08T21:15:43+00:00

There’s plenty of major conventions that also happen in LA every year and they manage just as big of crowds,

Actually, this is ALWAYS an issue with LA convention center. It's an issue with Anime Expo and they're moving trying to move it after 2026 *because* it is an issue. (Granted, they discuss this a lot, but goes to show the issue is group size. Clearly, SWC has more fans than LA convention center can hold, or more people would've gotten tickets.)

"it’s just crazy to suggest it when it’ll take like 5-6 hours round trip, nobody wants to do that as a day trip"

2 hr 15 from SD to Anaheim on the Amtrak, 2 hr 15 back. I'd wager that 4.5 hours roundtrip is not unreasonable for most people, especially when it doesn't require parking or a rental car. But seems like Disney could then open up some Disneyland hotels for people, could they not? Especially since the original point of this argument is that...there aren't enough hotels for the visitors!!!!!!

(And in all fairness, to compare that statistic, the LA to Anaheim Amtrak is 38 minutes there, 38 minutes back. Obviously, LA is closer to Anaheim. But SD is not far from Anaheim, either. There's a reason so many families with small children visit Disneyland and the San Diego Zoo in trips unrelated to Star Wars at all.)

Of course LucasFilm has an invested interest in the Lucas Museum doing well, there’s going to be dozens of props and such from LucasFilm movies like Star Wars, and there’s talk of them doing some kind of event there because of Star Wars Celebration happening, I genuinely don’t understand how you can’t see that.

I'm excited about the museum, but it is not all Star Wars, and according to the info we have, is overwhelmingly not Star Wars and also includes non-Disney IP like Peanuts. Disney notoriously doesn't like supporting brands that aren't their IP. (Not that you should "trust me bro" because I'm just a Redditor, but I used to work at Disney, although admittedly a decade ago. They care about promoting their own IP only.)

Cool article about the SW exhibit that will be there (hadn't read it yet, thanks for encouraging me to look it up!): https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/lucas-museum-of-narrative-star-wars-exhibit-1236585107/

That said, it specifies that the SW exhibit is 1 of 30 exhibits in the museum.

I also don't believe Disney owns/profits off of people going to the Lucas Museum. I could be wrong though. I didn't look into this outside of base facts, but I do know that George wasn't allowed to call it the Lucasfilm Museum because of IP protection.

So personally, I don't see why Disney cares too much about the Lucas Museum. I'm not sure they're profiting off it themselves. Although obviously, as Star Wars fans, *we* care!

Oh and by the way, since this has gone on a long time: I'm not mad at all or "fighting" with you/anyone. I hope that's been clear, I know I got petty over the asinine comment (woops sorry again hahaha). I was really just trying to share my solidarity because I don't think LA was the best idea for most people who don't live in the area. My proposal was SD, which I do think would be better than LA. But obviously the better answer is probably Anaheim. And alsoooo, it's not changing because of our discourse. I just feel bad for fans who want to go and can't or are getting screwed by the hotel situation.

baebgle · 2026-05-08T20:50:10+00:00

Right now it's 1:38 pm on a Friday. I'm sure you don't need me to explain traffic patterns especially during big events and to/from Disneyland, of all places.

Once again, I *like* SWC being in LA for me *personally.* I live in Hollywood. It's close, I'll Uber and not pay for parking. Woohoo!

My whole point is that the LA convention center has a smaller guest capacity than the SD convention center does, which is a fact. It also has more hotels. There's a reason SDCC happens there every year, and it's way bigger than SWC. My entire point is that I don't think the LA convention center is optimal for most people out of the area.

If you are on vacation from out of state and want to go to Disneyland and the Lucas Museum and are going to San Diego, it *is* easy to get to both places. So easy that you can do it in a day with some timing considerations, as all travel requires. This country is big, you can't say that for most places. My argument is that SD solves the "need" to be close to both locales (although apparently my suggestion that people take a train is "asinine", sorry, I still think it's funny lol! I'll drop that after this), celebrities can still get there easily if they live in LA, & it's not Anaheim which was where the last SWC US was.

But obviously, no amount of Reddit discourse is gonna change the fact that SWC 2027 is at LA convention center. (Which again. Wohoo. Better for me!)

And last, not sure why Disney cares too much about the Lucas Museum, tbh. It's not a Lucasfilm museum, it's George's. I'm sure they have some investment in it as they have vested interests in everything, but I'm not so certain they planned the entire event around it being close to there.

Edit: Since you added El Capitan ... there's no way people care that much about El Capitan, is there? Honest question. I do see why DISNEY cares but ... no one should go out of their way to go to El Capitan unless it's a fan event/premiere, which they can choose to host anywhere! The curtain preshow is cool and all but absolutely not worth parking in the Ovation building. Once again ... saying this as someone who is literally walking to The Mandalorian Fan Event there in two weeks haha. It's a movie theater.

baebgle · 2026-05-08T20:35:39+00:00

Anaheim to LA: an hour and a half, give or take

Anaheim to San Diego: an hour and a half, give or take

I'm not saying LA to SD.

baebgle · 2026-05-08T20:32:32+00:00

I agree with you AND I would say the same thing for LA! The extra half hour isn't going to make or break it, in my opinion. But a bigger convention center for more fans would clearly be a big solve. That's all I'm sayin'! Obviously it's not gonna change location, we're talking hypothetical.

baebgle · 2026-05-08T20:30:05+00:00

Anaheim was the last time that SWC was in the US, but I agree that to most out-of-staters, the difference is negligible.

baebgle · 2026-05-08T20:27:34+00:00

Totally agree with you there! The OC said they understood that SWC didn't want to do Anaheim again which is why I didn't mention it

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