Why grade cigar box labels? Before answering this question, we must first look at the history of why grading services came about in the first place.
It all started back the early 1960’s when people began to invest serious money in collectibles, such as; coins and stamps. Wanting to get the most value out of their collectible, sellers were usually bias in describing the condition of their collectible. Eventually, there became a rampant practice of over grading and in some cases out right scams of unsuspecting buyers.
Grading services soon sprang to life in order to handle this problem of over grading. The grading services provided unbiased experts in the field, a consistent set of standards, and the ability to protect the collectible so as to prevent further deterioration.
It wasn’t long afterwards that buyers of collectibles insisted on having their items graded. Eventually, a collectibles ‘Grade’ started to determine the overall worth of a collectible. A higher grade in a collectible could mean thousands of dollars more to the collectibles overall worth. In addition, as the grading services became more sophisticated they began offering additional services such as: price guides, population reports, daily trading sheets, and investment guidelines for buying and selling.
Today, collectibles such as: coins, stamps, baseball cards, and even cigar box labels, can all be graded by an independent third party grading service.
So should you consider grading your Cigar Box Labels? You should consider grading based on the reasons given above. But in addition, grading also provides the buyer a level of confidence that the item is authentic, and also provides the seller with a well packaged marketable item.
Today, many buyers will only buy a collectible if it is graded. There are many reputable grading services including: Global Cigar Label Grading Service (GCLGS), Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS), and Numismatic Guarantee Corporation (NCG) to name only a few.
What should a collector/seller look for in a grading service? Reputation, cost of using the service, and the value of the collectible after it is graded should all be considered.
Is there any reason not to grade a collectible? Yes, you should consider the tradeoff between the costs of grading versus the value of the collectible itself.