Out of curiosity, what are the general rules of thumb on having cards graded?
Like most American kids, I grew up collecting sports cards, but haven't bought a pack or followed the hobby at all since I was about 17 years old.
That said, when I was a kid, approx 1997, I inherited a giant box of 1970s cards. My uncle had collected cards when he was a kid, he died in a car accident in like 1980, well before I was born....his cards ended up in storage in their attic with a bunch of other stuff. When my grandmother sold the house, they cleaned out the attic, found this giant box of cards, and just gave it to me. Mostly 1973 Topps football, 1974 Topps baseball, 1975 Topps football and baseball, some NHL and NBA from the same timeframe....mostly commons that I've got stored in a binder, but there are a few noteworthy cards in there...Franco Harris rookies, Lynn Swann rookies (where they spelled the word "receiver" wrong on the card), Dan Fouts rookies, some Nolan Ryan cards, etc.
Is there really a point in grading if you're not really looking to sell? Is there a dollar threshold in terms of "value" of the card vs. cost of grading where it makes sense? I've thought about this question for years but I've never done it. The more precious ones I've kept in very good shape, but they're nowhere near Gem 10 ratings.