Graded Baseball Cards

[Ash11]

This may be my most valuable
One

[JFLegal]

I don’t get this joke, but my dad did a plumbing job a couple years ago for a retired Doctor in Toledo that sold a rare Porsche to Jerry Seinfeld. Jerry flew in on a private jet to check it out, hung out with the guy as the money was getting wired to him and then drove off in the Porsche.

Anyways, nah, my dad sold his GI Joes to some random dude from North Carolina. The guy said he and his wife just had their first kid. Can’t imagine telling a woman who just went through labor and was potentially dealing with some postpartum depression “hey, I’m gonna go drop a bunch of cash on some toys - see you tomorrow!” Lol

there was an episode of seinfield where jerry "drugged" his date so he could play with her "toys." no, not bill cosby style. he wanted to play with her GI Joe collection. and he did! lol.

[JFLegal]

with the 10 cards for $200 through PSA, how much do you end up spending in total when you factor in fees? i see a lot of people online complaining about inflated shipping/handling fees. i'm guessing it would be about $300 total for 10 cards, so $30 per card. i have at least 10 cards that are worth $100 or more, so i might try it out.

[RedTeamGo!]

there was an episode of seinfield where jerry "drugged" his date so he could play with her "toys." no, not bill cosby style. he wanted to play with her GI Joe collection. and he did! lol.

LOL. The turkey dinner!! I totally forgot that episode. I just ended my binge rewatch of Game of Thrones a few days ago and have been lost on what to binge now. Seinfeld might be the ticket, haven’t watched it in forever.

[757690]

with the 10 cards for $200 through PSA, how much do you end up spending in total when you factor in fees? i see a lot of people online complaining about inflated shipping/handling fees. i'm guessing it would be about $300 total for 10 cards, so $30 per card. i have at least 10 cards that are worth $100 or more, so i might try it out.

The shipping costs depends on how much you value your cards. They ask you to put a value on each card, and they use that to figure out the insurance needed for shipping, so be as precise as you can to make sure they are insured fully, but you aren’t paying extra by overvaluing them.

If you go to their site, they do tell you the shipping costs ahead of time, so you can see what it is before agreeing to send them in. And yes, they absolutely overcharge for shipping. They do it because they can, everyone pays it. And remember to factor in your shipping costs to ship them the cards, which needs to be insured as well.

[JFLegal]

The shipping costs depends on how much you value your cards. They ask you to put a value on each card, and they use that to figure out the insurance needed for shipping, so be as precise as you can to make sure they are insured fully, but you aren’t paying extra by overvaluing them.

If you go to their site, they do tell you the shipping costs ahead of time, so you can see what it is before agreeing to send them in. And yes, they absolutely overcharge for shipping. They do it because they can, everyone pays it. And remember to factor in your shipping costs to ship them the cards, which needs to be insured as well.

it's a shame there are not local (or even regional) dealers who are respected enough where you could just drop them off in person and pick them up. sounds like PSA (and beckett to a lesser degree) have found themselves quite the monopoly here. hey, more power to 'em.

[Bob Sheed]

it's a shame there are not local (or even regional) dealers who are respected enough where you could just drop them off in person and pick them up. sounds like PSA (and beckett to a lesser degree) have found themselves quite the monopoly here. hey, more power to 'em.

It is shameful.

After insurance, both ways, plus shipping, plus their fees, plus tax, the average collector is looking at ~30 bucks per card to get it evaluated. And that's if you do their $200 deal that quickly balloons above 300 once you add in all the other charges.

Unless you are grading cards upwards of 500 in value, it's not worth it. (More expensive to have those graded too. Naturally.) I'll tell you what I have been doing lately though. I either strictly buy ungraded, or, I have been buying up slabs from frustrated sellers who have marked them down below what it would even cost to have them graded. Where there is value to do so of course.

The bubble is gonna burst HARD when everything opens back up though. I think it's gonna be the new cards that come crashing down. The new baseball card market is beyond ridiculous. "Did you get the Green Factor Joey Votto? I have the Orange Factor, Red Factor, and Blue One. My friend even has the RAINBOW Factor! Oooohhhh!" What a scam. "Oh, but it's a 8/35?!" Oooohhhhh

We'll see.

[757690]

It is shameful.

After insurance, both ways, plus shipping, plus their fees, plus tax, the average collector is looking at ~30 bucks per card to get it evaluated. And that's if you do their $200 deal that quickly balloons above 300 once you add in all the other charges.

Unless you are grading cards upwards of 500 in value, it's not worth it. (More expensive to have those graded too. Naturally.) I'll tell you what I have been doing lately though. I either strictly buy ungraded, or, I have been buying up slabs from frustrated sellers who have marked them down below what it would even cost to have them graded. Where there is value to do so of course.

The bubble is gonna burst HARD when everything opens back up though. I think it's gonna be the new cards that come crashing down. The new baseball card market is beyond ridiculous. "Did you get the Green Factor Joey Votto? I have the Orange Factor, Red Factor, and Blue One. My friend even has the RAINBOW Factor! Oooohhhh!" What a scam. "Oh, but it's a 8/35?!" Oooohhhhh

We'll see.

The entire graded system is a scam, imo. Grading is all subjective and even the PSA guys issue some highly questionable grades. However, the market is there, most collectors have bought into it, so money is to be made by getting your cards graded.

But that really is the only benefit to it, imo, making more money. I would never get a card I want to keep graded. What’s the point in owning a card if you can’t touch it and play with it? My own collections is full of my favorite cards in average condition, and not even kept in sheets or holders. Their value is in their memories, which should be the point of collecting.

/rant

[PTjvs]

Current prices according to who? And, exactly what does "all time high" refer to? What types of cards are you referring to? What you have to pay for them? What a dealer will pay you for them (they won't give you a dime except for a rare card, as I said in my post)?

Selling to dealers is almost never a good way to maximize value.

jvs

[PTjvs]

The answer on whether or not grading makes sense likely will hinge on the cards in question. The vintage market is really hot right now, but PSA and Beckett have been overwhelmed with the volume of submissions and the turnaround times are 6+ months in a lot of cases, so it’s hard to say what the market will look like after they finally get back from grading.

That being said grading definitely helps with liquidity, especially if you’re talking about high end cards. I know that I personally wouldn’t touch an ungraded 54 Aaron or something of that sort, whereas it probably doesn’t make sense to submit a 1990 Frank Thomas unless you’re reasonably sure it’s going to come back as a PSA 9 or better.

If you do decide to grade I’d suggest looking into a group submission as the pricing and turnaround time are much better than if you submitted on your own.

This is all good info. I don't really do sports cards, but I have some MTG cards that I should absolutely grade before selling, but I don't really want to mail them, BGS (which is the gold standard in MTG) is not currently accepting in person drop-offs, and the turn times for both PSA & BGS are completely absurd.

One thing to keep in mind is that almost everyone who has never graded cards before overestimates how well their cards will grade.

jvs

[JFLegal]

It is shameful.

After insurance, both ways, plus shipping, plus their fees, plus tax, the average collector is looking at ~30 bucks per card to get it evaluated. And that's if you do their $200 deal that quickly balloons above 300 once you add in all the other charges.

Unless you are grading cards upwards of 500 in value, it's not worth it. (More expensive to have those graded too. Naturally.) I'll tell you what I have been doing lately though. I either strictly buy ungraded, or, I have been buying up slabs from frustrated sellers who have marked them down below what it would even cost to have them graded. Where there is value to do so of course.

The bubble is gonna burst HARD when everything opens back up though. I think it's gonna be the new cards that come crashing down. The new baseball card market is beyond ridiculous. "Did you get the Green Factor Joey Votto? I have the Orange Factor, Red Factor, and Blue One. My friend even has the RAINBOW Factor! Oooohhhh!" What a scam. "Oh, but it's a 8/35?!" Oooohhhhh

We'll see.

ha, i didn't know about any of that. i have zero new baseball cards. my stuff is all 70s, 80s and some 90s.

[JFLegal]

re: group submissions on PSA. i'm not seeing that option on their website. that sounds like a good idea though if they offer it. i imagine if you have them do 100 cards the price per card would come down. course, could be wrong about that since i'm still a newbie at this (the business of card grading).

[Larry Schuler]

The guy said he and his wife just had their first kid. Can’t imagine telling a woman who just went through labor and was potentially dealing with some postpartum depression “hey, I’m gonna go drop a bunch of cash on some toys - see you tomorrow!” Lol

I can't remember the standup but there's a very accurate joke I always think about, especially now that I have a kid.

"I don't know if I'm ready to be a mom. But I am totally ready to be a dad."

[757690]

re: group submissions on PSA. i'm not seeing that option on their website. that sounds like a good idea though if they offer it. i imagine if you have them do 100 cards the price per card would come down. course, could be wrong about that since i'm still a newbie at this (the business of card grading).

https://www.psacard.com/pricing#value

[JFLegal]

https://www.psacard.com/pricing#value

thanks. but i still don't see the option where it would be less than $20 per card. looks like even if you go with a big group, it's going to be $20 per card unless i'm missing something.

i see the 10-for-$200 that you initally pointed out ($20 per card) but i thought another poster indicated you could get an even better deal if you went in with a big group.