The card grading industry has in many ways changed the face of modern collecting. Long-time collectors often resist the best-known changes brought about by grading: the price explosion among "low pop" commons and set registry competition resulting in exorbitant prices paid for minute increases in set "GPA." Many more embrace the security of being able to purchase reliably-graded cards online often sight unseen.But none of those developments are actually new to the hobby. We"ve always judged cards by their condition and deep-pocketed quality-conscious collectors have always paid top dollar for pristine examples of the hobby"s marquee cards. Well-known collectors have always jockeyed to have the "best" collection. All this happened long before the names that dominate today"s set registries became household names within our hobby. Clear proof of this resides in long-time collectors" knowledge of where the best "unregistered" collections lie who has the "best" Wagners Planks and Ruths outside the graded arena of the hobby.While assessing condition and creating competition among collectors for the hobby"s top sets aren"t developments that were invented by grading companies there is one hobby arena that grading has helped develop if not singlehandedly invented: the pedigree. All hobbyists agree that provenance is a critical component of collecting; tracking a card back to its original owner helps trace a card"s lineage or create a virtual guarantee of authenticity (and reduces the likelihood of alteration along the way in many cases). Indeed many collectors are willing to pay a premium for cards once owned by hobby pioneers such as Lionel Carter or Frank Nagy or Barry Halper. Other collectors have begun collecting subsets of pedigreed cards each memorializing a specific player collector or hobby event. As more pedigreed cards enter the market pedigreed card collecting is becoming more prevalent among collectors.What we have here is a grouping of pedigreed cards that were once owned by actual players. In each case the cards were consigned to auction directly from a player"s estate and subsequently graded by SGC with the provenance listed on the third line of the grading "flip." By bidding on this lot you have a chance to start an instant collection of pedigreed cards.