OT: PSA graded baseball cards

I''m looking into having many of my baseball/basketball cards PSA graded. Anyone know of a free site where I can go on and see what the graded cards are worth? For example, if I have a complete set of 1986 Topps baseball cards, will it tell me what ll the cards are worth depending on the grade number?? Thanks

best bet is to just use ebay completed auctions and see what the bigger names bring in. If its not vintage (70's or later), id send to bgs instead. You could also pick up a beckett magazine and in the back will have values for graded cards (just the bigger names from each yr, mostly rookie season unless really old vintage like mantle 2nd yr, 3rd ye etc).

not worth the money unless you have a card of significant value. Nothings free anymore.

The only cards that I would grade would be the following:

Pre War (Goudeys, T206, etc)
Pre 1970 cards of Mantle, Clemente, Aaron or Mays
Iconic rookies (Rose, Koufax, Reggie, Nolan Ryan, Seaver etc.)

I'd grade the above in any condition, because a grade will enhance their value, even if they are low grade. I wouldn't grade anything after '70 unless you are talking about a Jordan or Gretzky rookie, because those two are heavily counterfeited, and if authentic, they will bring decent money even if they are beat.

I may grade other cards that appear sharp before '70, but it's a real crapshoot. Unless you have an eye for it, you will likely be disappointed. For most cards, outside of those I mentioned above, unless you get an 8, 9 or 10 (9's and 10's are extremely tough with vintage Topps based on centering alone), grading is not worth the trouble or cost.

I agree to only grade better than EX cards PRIOR to 1970 otherwise u are wasting a lot of money u will never see back. PSA is around 10-15$ a card and on top of that shipping and 95% of the cards in the 80s will never sell for that kind of money whether graded perfect or not.

If u have pre 1970s cards of course grade all the "stars" (not semi stars.) and more importantly look for MINT examples of even common cards as in some cases these only exist in 1 or 2 copies out there in the world and can get bidding wars to happen because super collectors want to finish off their PSA 9 or PSA 10 sets WITH THAT CARD... (but this is risky too, as some commons of PSA 10 go for thousands and at PSA8 or less they are virtually less than the holder they are in and sell for 10$.
SO BE CAREFUL...

the reason why 80s+ cards are worthless is because of mass production... everyone was collecting then and the card companies produced millions of each card AND even worse they sent out FACTORY SEALED SETS... this made it very easy for 1000s of gem mint PERFECT 10s to exist for each card.


The cards from 50s and 60s that survived through bike spokes/parents throwing them away/ kids trading/ sticking them on walls and books/etc etc went from thousands of mass production down to only 100to10,000 of these around... take into that the grading scale of 1(barely survived) to 10(fresh out of pack and centered) and u have virtually a handful of these perfect examples left IF THAT.

That is why cards that are OLDER are worth more money... NOT necessarily BECAUSE they are older... just simply less made and less survived of each one.


Of course there are random cards in the 80s and 90s that still have decent value (but dropped significantly).. iconic 80s/90s examples we remember.. a perfect bonds rookie / ken griffey jr (went from hundreds+ to $20-100 tops / Frank Thomas 1990 topps NNOF (the card without his name on it.. if name is showing then its worth 10cents.. why cause millions are out there. :/ ETC ETC ETC

Absolute BEST way to find TRUE VALUE (what it would sell for today)... is to goto ebay and search for the card in which you are wanting to grade/sell and then on the left hand side choose to sort by COMPLETED LISTINGS.... this will give u the last 30 days of sales in this card.. the green sold.. the red didnt.

Sadly... this may suprise u in a bad way and let you know your collection is worthless... but of course I am sure u still have the occasional nice card or two in which u can single out and sell RAW or grade and sell/save for later.

if u have 1986 topps in baseball my guess is it would be pennies on the dollar of what u think it was worth.. but 1986 fleer in basketball might be the value u had hoped.. its still iconic enough whether mass produced or not.. there was no factory sets and jordan rookie is still a much looked after card going for 300 in fair shape to 1000 and beyond in NM fashion.

hope this helps


-murph

Wow Murphy, couldn't have said it better myself. Good job...

I did some collecting back when PSA first came out and I made a killing grading even newer cards because 9's and 10's of rookies (even modern at the time) were going for a ton. I remember getting a PSA 10 of a 95 SP Terrell Davis and sold it for $600. Even cards in the late 90's fresh out of a pack like Bowan Chrome baseball selling for $100+ with a PSA 10.

Again agree with everything Murphy said. Now some PSA 9's are selling for $5.00 a piece of some pretty decent cards so the seller is losing money just to have it graded plus the value of the card.

I also used to buy some PSA 8 or 9's for cheap, cut them out of the graded case and sell them more much more with the word MINT in the auction title because the card looked perfect.

The kids get them

I remember I bought every Shaq rookie for around $3000 back in 92. Worthless today, I know. Lots of my collections I gave to special need kids, better that way. They will enjoy them. I have another 2000 cards in the book all in order, giving them to the kids also. What can you do, nothing. Just the way it goes...

I have so many cards sorted, and protected packed away in the basement. I have almost everything cataloged and know what is there, have not looked in over 10 years... Know some are worth a good amount but most not. Also know that some of the valuable singles that are packed away are now not worth much and vice versa but just don't want to bother.... Also have many unopened boxes of cards, those are worth the most.... I figured out that buying boxes/cases of unopened cards would be the best value in the long run, I was right...

Maybe another 15 years might be worth going through again to sell...

How many grading companies exist for cards ?

With coins there are dozens of them, two are well-respected and the rest are pretty much garbage.

Doug said:

How many grading companies exist for cards ?

With coins there are dozens of them, two are well-respected and the rest are pretty much garbage.

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its the same with card grading.. there are bunches of grading companies.. but the more legit ones are PSA and BGS(beckett)... also known as BVG (if grading vintage cards)

There is some second tier grading out there, but its not as reliable as with PSA and BGS which are pretty exact and people buy them to make master sets... GAI and BCCG(beckett 2nd tier grading) are usable to verify your cards authenticity, but for use of selling it, it doesnt make much sense because people pay 25-50% less for say a BCCG 8 vs a BVG 8....

Why? because beckett created that 2nd tier as like a quick opinion and most people have flooded market(ebay..etc) with junk BCCG8 cards which wouldnt grade PSA 5 barely and that has scammed a lot of people out of money.... people basically would crack PSA/BGS 5 and 6's and send them into BCCG and get 8-10 grades and resell....

GAI isnt as trustworthy anymore because for a few years they had a scammer doing the signed item authentication and it kind of hurt there reputation... since then they have cleaned up the scam, but never really recovered their image..so people do trade them in high demand anymore. BUT GAI has advantages too. they will pretty much grade anything if its authentic.. like a ticket stub from a game.. or a newspaper cut out of a player from 1920..etc they even have holders that can seal an entire box of packs of cards. which is awesome because PSA only grades packs 1 by 1.

So... in the end...PSA and BVG are the top tiers. in most collectors opinions. SGC is also very good at vintage stuff(very nice secure holders), but I dont see many people doing 1990s or 2000s cards in SGC holders.

-murph

Murphy is giving best and most complete advice here.

dkp said:

Murphy is giving best and most complete advice here.

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lol thanks my man... there is a few things im pretty knowledgeable at.. sports cards is one of them

i try to help out posters when i can..plus im extremely analytical lol, so sorry for my long winded responses.

hope this helps out original poster and many others who are considering grading and/or selling their collections.

-murph

I have some Donruss sets from 1989, 1990 and 1991 which would include a Sammy Sosa rookie. I checked on eBay to see what they were worth and they were only worth $20-$30 each so what Murph was saying is true. It's not worth it to have these graded at $10-$15 each even for a rookie card like Sammy Sosa.

quantumleap said:

I have some Donruss sets from 1989, 1990 and 1991 which would include a Sammy Sosa rookie. I checked on eBay to see what they were worth and they were only worth $20-$30 each so what Murph was saying is true. It's not worth it to have these graded at $10-$15 each even for a rookie card like Sammy Sosa.

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unfortunately even though not everyone was accused or proven guilty of steroids.. the steroid era has also ruined the 80s-2000s card market as well.. not to mention the release of every major set in factory grade at walmart and meijers and card shops round the world.. so tons and TONS of mint condition everythings from each set because of these Sealed sets.
-murph

1971 and 1975 cards MUST be graded. The prices for 9's and up (even for commons) are thru the roof. I remember a Jack Aker 1971 high number (PSA 10) was sellint for about $1000.

I would grade pre-1981 stars for sure. Sportscardforum.com can steer you in the right direction. DO NOT use Beckett for grading.

I have collected since 1971 and can help with questions also. I also have Beckett pricing on-line. The best pricing is eBay however.

Murphy8276 said:

unfortunately even though not everyone was accused or proven guilty of steroids.. the steroid era has also ruined the 80s-2000s card market as well.. not to mention the release of every major set in factory grade at walmart and meijers and card shops round the world.. so tons and TONS of mint condition everythings from each set because of these Sealed sets.
-murph

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The complete sets I like and do hold value are the Topps Heritage sets (with SP's)