Higher Prices for Lower Graded Cards?

[Browncow75]

Hey All.
Just curious to see your opinions. When looking up VCP prices on 1914 Cracker Jack Mordecai Brown cards in Vg and Vg/Ex, I discovered that the average price for PSA 3's are $348, and PSA 4's are $300. SGC 40's are $554 and 50's are $449! They all have multiple examples sold in each grade, so whats up with the lower graded cards being sold at higher prices? Is this normal? Just struck me as odd. Thanks!

Brandon

[Cat]

The timing in which folks are building sets causes fluctuations. At times some will build a set of similar grade (all SGC 40s as an example) cards which can cause price differences that don't make sense. A collector may not have needed or wanted a card a couple months ago, but now, since they are working on the set, they will pay what it takes to get that card. I see the differences you describe often on VCP and I don't read much into it.

[ls7plus]

Like Joe D's consecutive game hitting streak. Williams out-hit him over the same 56 game span in 1941, something like .415 to .408. I wouldn't put too much emphasis on it either.

Larry

[scooter729]

Could be:

- the lower-grade price is from 2007-08, when prices were higher in general, and the higher-grade price is from 2010-11.

- the lower-grade card had fantastic eye appeal but a minor issue knocking down the technical grade, while the higher-grade card was at the low end of the grade.

or many other factors....

[DanP]

Centering?
I personally would pay more for a perfectly centered PSA 4 (especially if for that issue perfectly centered cards are tough to find) than I would for a PSA 5 that is off-center.

A lot of times when I see high price fluctuations in VCP pricing when I look at the scans I see a premium on the centered cards.

Dan

[Mrc32]

You may also consider that many set collectors are having to settle for lower grade cards because many of the higher grade versions have been snatched up.

[T206Collector]

A lot of raw collectors will bid up weak cards/beaters into nearly the SGC 40 range, which I always find a bit odd. Then you can often get a 50 for just a wee bit more than what a 40 would cost. Then there is usually a pretty decent gap to get to 60, because there are a lot of people that won't collect cards with creases, so they start at 60 -- and that's where the "hi grade collector" demand begins, so to speak.

In short, there are different price points at different levels of the grading structure, and you will sometimes see anomalies at the line between two grades based on this, and a variety of other factors that have already been mentioned in this thread (e.g., eye appeal, timing, auction publicity, etc.)

[ls7plus]

I'm with Dan on the eye appeal factor, something of a gray area that can loom large insofar as the price is concerned.

Larry

[Browncow75]

Thanks for the input guys! I too would rather buy a card with nicer eye appeal, that may have a flaw that brings the technical TPG grade down. I just thought it was odd that the same card had lower grades for both companies' identical grade level.