Aug 11, 2026 · 27 min · 10 segments
Grading built this market. Grading is now changing again. This episode traces card grading from the 1990s, when buyers and sellers eyeballed condition and negotiated it live, through the…
Historically speaking, grading really didn't start until the '90s.
Before then, when people were comparing cards and buying and selling, they were eyeballing condition, and in order to make the purchases and sales, the buyers and sellers really had to agree upon the condition together.
This was, of course, before the Internet, so all of the things would happen live at trade shows or in personal meetups.
As the world moved into the information age in the 2000s, grading levels started to slowly rise.
Yet still, card enthusiasts were very hesitant to make purchases online.
Similar to Bitcoin when it first started, adoption rates are always going to be slow at the onset.
People still wanted to feel a card in their hands.
They wanted to see it themselves, live and in person.
In a word, trust really hadn't been developed yet in the marketplace.
In the mid-2010s is when we really start seeing a stirrup of card activity online.
Most of the comps that you go and see on CardLadder are going to be, at oldest, 2014, 2015, somewhere in that range.
You might see some 2008 here and there, but very rare.
Most of those sales took place on places like Heritage or the old PWCC marketplace, which is now Fanatics.
These marketplaces, auction houses, already had the trust that was needed for people to be able to make these purchases and sales.
At this point in the mid-2010s, this is when trust started to build, and this is when adoption rates started to spike.
We all know that everything went bonkers in COVID, but there were many years leading up to that where trust was still being built in the marketplace, and the confluence of factors that involved COVID, which have been covered by many, many people, creators, and just people on blogs, normally highlight the same factors.
The rise of influencers happened, which drove a lot of eyeballs where they needed to go.
Hype culture became more and more prevalent.
Surplus put some money in people's pocket, and the general lack of identity and uncertainty that happened during COVID, all of these factors together made for the crazy COVID run-up.
I've spoken extensively in other videos about why that was different from now, so make sure to check those out.
I'll put one at the end of this video for you.
But we're not dealing with that here.
One massive side effect, or you could say symptom, of this whole explosion during COVID, though, was the rise of grading to establish markers that would make things less subjective and more objective.
Remember, until then, people were eyeballing things and trying to agree upon a condition.
But for a market to truly explode, you need everyone to be able to agree on prices and values.
Historically speaking, grading really didn't start until the '90s.
Before then, when people were comparing cards and buying and selling, they were eyeballing condition, and in order to make the purchases and sales, the buyers and sellers really had to agree upon the condition together.
This was, of course, before the Internet, so all of the things would happen live at trade shows or in personal meetups.
As the world moved into the information age in the 2000s, grading levels started to slowly rise.
Yet still, card enthusiasts were very hesitant to make purchases online.
Similar to Bitcoin when it first started, adoption rates are always going to be slow at the onset.
People still wanted to feel a card in their hands.
They wanted to see it themselves, live and in person.
In a word, trust really hadn't been developed yet in the marketplace.
In the mid-2010s is when we really start seeing a stirrup of card activity online.
Most of the comps that you go and see on CardLadder are going to be, at oldest, 2014, 2015, somewhere in that range.
You might see some 2008 here and there, but very rare.
Most of those sales took place on places like Heritage or the old PWCC marketplace, which is now Fanatics.
These marketplaces, auction houses, already had the trust that was needed for people to be able to make these purchases and sales.
At this point in the mid-2010s, this is when trust started to build, and this is when adoption rates started to spike.
We all know that everything went bonkers in COVID, but there were many years leading up to that where trust was still being built in the marketplace, and the confluence of factors that involved COVID, which have been covered by many, many people, creators, and just people on blogs, normally highlight the same factors.
The rise of influencers happened, which drove a lot of eyeballs where they needed to go.
Hype culture became more and more prevalent.
Surplus put some money in people's pocket, and the general lack of identity and uncertainty that happened during COVID, all of these factors together made for the crazy COVID run-up.
I've spoken extensively in other videos about why that was different from now, so make sure to check those out.
I'll put one at the end of this video for you.
But we're not dealing with that here.
One massive side effect, or you could say symptom, of this whole explosion during COVID, though, was the rise of grading to establish markers that would make things less subjective and more objective.
Remember, until then, people were eyeballing things and trying to agree upon a condition.
But for a market to truly explode, you need everyone to be able to agree on prices and values.
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