But seriously. . . .
 

are there really folks who get excited about the PSA Achievement Medals? Like grown-ass men I mean. Seriously. Maybe I'm missing something here.

Steve - I have respect for you just from reading your previous posts, but 'grown-ass man' is a phrase that should be left to those that are not...it has been my experience that those are the ones who use it the most often.

I'm guessing you are better than that. - oh, and I agree with you about Achievement Medals the new first cousin to the participation trophy.

I hear ya. Deleted. Attempt at stupid humor and wasn't necessary.

I got a PSA Participation Award.
Does that count?
Kinda “cut your own ribbon out of a sheet of paper” thing.

Too funny Steve.

I wouldn't care if it wasn't for the thousands of dollars in cards they're giving out to promote it on social media.

What you should be asking is do actual men use corny, juvenile terms like "grown-ass"?
What's next? Are you going to ask what individuals on here are "keeping it real" with their collecting?

Intelligent post Steve...

I think it is awesome I have a few sets that are #1 on the registry so yeah some grown ass men take some of the medals seriously.

Only facebook groups that put "keeping it real" in their title are worth a damn.

I have found it is not generally a good idea to rain on someone else's parade. :)
Registry is fun for a lot of folks.

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I could see getting excited if it came with some free cards as a prize, or at least some free or discounted submissions.

The set registry was, even if not intended as such, an act of marketing genius. I have read/heard the original intent was just to provide a tool for keeping track of inventory. Be that as it may, it blossomed into a huge market driver for PSA.

What's the achievement? Sending X amount of dollars to PSA?

Early on I used as just simply a way to track my card purchases. After awhile, as the registry gained momentum I found myself getting exciting about moving up a few levels with my set and was purchasing cards to increase my stature on the registry instead of just buying cards for my hobby. Thankfully I got my head out of my backside and realized my budget would take a huge hit and the competition would easily destroy me anyway. That put a quick end to my need for the registry.

It can definitely lead you to dramatically overvalue commons.

The set registry differentiates quality.

https://www.psacard.com/psasetregist...opps-basic/629

Anyone can say they have the nicest 1952 Topps set but the PSA registry proves that Charles Merkel does. That is worth something.

He might, but the PSA registry provides evidence, not proof.

The guy has had the highest rated set since 2002. There is plenty of proof.

Number 2 is Ken Kendrick. He has more money than God and if he could be number 1 he would love to be. You guys all forget that cards have pop reports and you can have all the money in the world but if someone doesn't want to sell the card it can't be owned. This is why people take the registry seriously.

All of these medals add up to 2000 points. One of the medals that is the most valuable is being #1 in a set. A lot of people can't get that medal. They just don't have a set that allows for it.

The set registry has done wonders for the hobby because it drastically expanded the number of cards being sought after.

The most obvious example that comes to mind of how the registry has increased the market for a card is the 86 fleer Johnny Moore psa 10. It isn't worth much in an 8 or lower, maybe 150 in a 9, and 10k+ in a 10.

I can see the appeal of building the highest graded set or player run. Just to say you had assembled the finest example. But I certainly wouldn't do it for a virtual medal from a grading company.

The notion that the Registry absolutely differentiates true card quality, or that any particular vintage or PreWar Registry Set is "better/nicer" than another set (based on PSA's grades and the Registry site's ranking system) is specious and reductive. In other words, when comparatively evaluating cards or sets, it is important to parse "higher ranked on the PSA Registry" from genuinely "better." Or I suppose not everyone is willing to cede the defining of the better set or card to PSA's graders (especially since their qualifications/resumes are not really known).

The opinion of a "professional grader" and the weightings of PSA's Registry compositions certainly determine which cards and sets rule the roost on that one website— but the plethora of vintage cards residing in high grade PSA holders that would never get those same grades today is a factor that simply cannot be ignored.

PSA can often say one thing about a card with their grade, and yet time and again the market says otherwise— if that high grade card's sale price is surpassed by a better looking card in the same or sometimes even a lower grade.

From my browsing of the Registry, it seems high ranked Registry sets infrequently offer scans of the cards; when such sets do, there are invariably some print-dot riddled and off-centered cards. Those cards certainly help the sets in question maintain their high rank— but those same cards would probably set record lows for the grade if offered for sale in today's market, where there is such a premium on eye appeal and the card itself meriting or exceeding the grade assigned.

My focus is Mantle, and in talking with many Mantle collectors we have noticed how so many of the high sticker grade cards to hit the auction block lately are uninspiring. For example, PWCC offered some specimens recently that would constitute a very high ranked Registry set— yet the cards were simply unattractive, and if cracked and resubmitted ten times today would be very, very lucky to get those same grades once. So would such a set really be the best quality? I suppose the answer is a subjective one, which hinges on whether one focuses on the sticker or both the sticker and the card itself.

Bottom line, unless there are scans of the cards being offered, I think it is important not to conflate the Registry with quality. They can certainly be one and the same, just not necessarily so. We can pull scans of some PSA 9 cards graded many years ago that would get a Registry set a point bonus, and yet there are more recently graded PSA 8s or 8.5s that I'm sure collectors would unanimously agree are the higher quality card. And if the PSA 9 were cracked and submitted today, likely PSA would agree as well.

There is also the question of whether some of the cards in very high grade holders were, in fact, altered.

A lot of these top sets don't offer scans not because they are concerned with someone like you not thinking their cards merit the grade they were assigned but to simply keep everyone who is chasing the set from knowing exactly what they own.

I posted the 1952 Topps set and only one of the top ten have photos available for viewing and I have to assume in many cases they also don't want to spend that much time scanning the cards.

I feel confident that Charles Merkel rests his head easy at night knowing he has the best 1952 Topps set out there regardless of what any of us think.

Just out of curiosity I picked another actively collected set and only four out of the top fifteen in the 1975 Topps set has pics available.

Peter, that's certainly another factor to consider, though with cards all across the condition spectrum having been worked I guess we can call that aspect a push/wash.

I'm not saying anyone should necessarily care what anyone else thinks. I just feel confident that I can't say Merkel's or any high ranked set is the best or nicest unless I can see the actual cards that back that up.

Unless the cards merit the grades, all someone is actually showing is that they have accumulated cards with sticker grades that PSA's formula ranks as the top.

One interesting related anecdote, I know one "PSA HOF" collector who used to have several top Registry sets, and he freely admitted to me that several of the key cards in his Registry sets were not the ones he would call the best quality; he would just keep them for his rankings as he liked the competition aspect— yet he would retain another specimen of the card that was a half or full grade lower, which he thought was the better card.

We can't say in all cases why scans aren't provided, but when a set's contents are already viewable, the cat is already out of the bag, in terms of what someone owns. In such cases, scans of a key card or three wouldn't be divulging any further information in terms of what grade was in that slot of the set. Rather, the scans could be offered as a sampling/indicator of the eye appeal of the set's contents, since all cards in a grade aren't necessarily the same quality.

I would bet a dime to a dollar most of the top rated sets have many very poor quality cards for the grade.

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There was a time relatively early on in the registry competition when the top guys were paying astronomical numbers for "low pop" commons and many of the ones I saw (ebay, auctions, etc.) were either sliders at best, or possibly had been worked on to improve the centering.

Plenty of top sets are available for viewing and plenty aren't. In the case of the 1952 Topps the top two aren't.

In the case of the 1915 Cracker Jack once more the top two aren't available. I think as you go down the list it is less important because as the grades go lower it is harder to hold someone hostage over a card as they are more readily available.

I'd say the biggest reason the vast majority of sets don't have photos added is because they added that functionality within the last few years (and the album addition three years ago) and that many of these sets may be static: basically unchanged for 10 years. People are lazy. I think it's more that they don't want to waste the time scanning and uploading cards rather than they want to protect insider information.

It's actually pretty easy to be #1 in a set in order to get the "award". Just have PSA create one for you. I've had them create about 10, not for the award. Enter the first card, and you're the #1 in the set. You just have to have five cards to qualify.

Totally agree. In terms of a card such a set builder needs, it can be very good for the wallet to keep a set un-viewable.

I don't disagree but if your set is private you obviously can't post pics and I believe most that are private are trying to protect themselves from others knowing what they own.

I am someone who has built high grade registry sets and can speak from experience that there could be some rational to keeping them private I just choose to share mine and add pics because I enjoy it.

As far as anyone loosing sleep over what their registry count is I think it is doubtful and probably more people took it seriously to get the prizes. I zoomed mine up to 2,000 an hour or so after they launched it and that was it.

I just was indicating that one of the medals that is part of it is being number one in a set and I certainly take that seriously for the sets I focus on. Having one of my wrestling sets win an award in 2013 was a big deal to me and some may think it's stupid and others may think it's cool but if no one took it seriously the registry would have died along time ago and it is stronger than ever.

This gentlemen Charles Merkel is in many ways responsible for collectors changing their focus and actually collecting the bums in high grade. I don't know one person growing up that would have given two sh++'s about a common just because it looked perfect.

Charlie along with a couple of other guys was certainly a pioneer of the registry sets and built an incredible collection. I sold him a card here and there, very classy guy especially for a plaintiff's lawyer. :D

It is awesome that there are some pioneers out there like him that have incredible collections that are worth a fortune. He sounds like a good dude in the articles I have read about him and his cards.

His sets are like works of art and extremely impressive.

Meh. It is just like the registry itself: preferred by those who like it. If you don't care about the registry the PSA awards and medals aren't meaningful to you other than as a means to a free lunch and some swag at the National. it is just another way some collectors prefer to measure themselves against others. I prefer height...I'm 6'4".

I know if I ever won an award it would not be going on my wall by my diplomas. I put more value in the plaque my daughter's little league team gave me for coaching them; that one is on the conference room wall.

I'm not a registry guy, but have a couple of questions if anyone could provide some edification with regards to Topps master sets. These questions are all connected in a roundabout way.

1. Does the "weight" of particular cards get updated/changed from time to time? Some extremely hard-to-find variations are only weighted as a 1. It makes no sense. Very low pops, which leads to...

2. Say there's a card with a very low total pop (in other words, virtually impossible to ever find), but you're lucky to have one in mid grade, is it 'worth' having it in your registry (the alternative being waiting until you can possibly find a higher grade one at some point)? Say it's a PSA 5, but your set is at 8.5 overall, wouldn't that lower your rating and actually hurt your efforts? The point here is without said card, you're looking at 8.5, but with it you're now lower in the 8 range. And if that card had a higher 'weight,' wouldn't that exponentially lower your rating? Which leads to this question...

3. Is their some sort of bonus for having a set 100% complete that would make Question #2 basically moot?

Just trying to get a general feel for the registry world.

1) It can. Normally doesn't until someone working on the registry makes the suggestion; you can recommend a new points scheme, and if it's a popular registry, they'll put it to vote.
2) It's better to have any spot filled rather than empty for the overall Set Rating, which is how they rank order the sets.
3) You can earn up to 3 free grades a year for completing 90% of cards in a registry set.
https://www.psacard.com/psasetregistry/benefits
And if your set is top ranked at the end of May each year, you get an icon that your set was the best that year.

when auctions sell peoples sets they usually do mention if its a high ranking set..... everyone likes to be critical but when it comes to selling , suddenly all the haters become lovers..

This scratches at my question- when a registered set is sold, and then broken up, how does the registry account for that? Does someone have to notify PSA? Or more properly put - and we have this issue with population reports and cross overs/crack and resubmit - how is the registry updated, if at all, when registered cards/sets are dismantled?

Until PSA decides to have registries for back runs (I am assuming they don’t), I have no use for the registry; although owning something that is#1 or 2 of anything is undeniably exciting.

When a card is sold it is customary for the seller to remove it from their set. In many cases the seller either forgets or doesn't bother and if so there is a process that PSA uses where you enter the Cert and it sends a note to the owner and after three tries you can send a scan of the front and back of the card to their inbox and they will manually remove it.

Once removed you can enter it into your set and it will reflect the new ownership.

You can retire a set and choose to keep the individual cards in your inventory or remove all from your inventory at that time. If the set was in the Top 5 of that set all time, it will stay on that list as a retired set. The new buyer can then register all the same cards, create their set, and improve on it with their own additional cards. Then the new set would show up in the Current Finest and All time finest lists. The retired set is not in the current finest listing.
PSA will make back runs if you ask them to, if someone hasn't done it already. You just need 5 cards of a "set" to make the request.
T206 sets with back brands:
https://www.psacard.com/psasetregist.../t206-sets/215
1952 Topps with some retired sets still in the top 5:
https://www.psacard.com/psasetregist...opps-basic/629

PSA is not taking set requests at this time. It has been that way for a long time now.

A long time now? Look how many new sets they added this month...
https://www.psacard.com/psasetregistry/news

Attachment 347888

With all due respect, you completely edited my second question for some reason, removing the very heart of what I was looking to get answered. Again, the actual question was:

"2. Say there's a card with a very low total pop (in other words, virtually impossible to ever find), but you're lucky to have one in mid grade, is it 'worth' having it in your registry (the alternative being waiting until you can possibly find a higher grade one at some point)? Say it's a PSA 5, but your set is at 8.5 overall, wouldn't that lower your rating and actually hurt your efforts? The point here is without said card, you're looking at 8.5, but with it you're now lower in the 8 range. And if that card had a higher 'weight,' wouldn't that exponentially lower your rating? Which leads to this question...

3. Is their some sort of bonus for having a set 100% complete that would make Question #2 basically moot?"

The answer is what I wrote: it's better to have every slot filled, than leave blanks.

Very much in agreement. The registry holds no appeal to me, but I'm glad others have the venue and it helps promote the hobby. I'm sure there are collectors who wouldn't want to go about their collections the way I go about mine, but there's room for us all and the diversity will serve the hobby in the long run.

Ok. Submit your own request and see how that goes. When you get the automated reply email stating they are not taking your request post back.

I can save you some time: https://www.psacard.com/psasetregistry/setrequests

My set is on the list. I completed it from zero cards to completion and it still has not been added. It took over a year to complete the set.

I can't speak to the current time frame but when I requested a set a year and a half ago it took maybe six weeks or so to be added.

If you are on the list you just have to play the waiting game.

Well. It was on the list and now its not.

Either way, the odds of you getting on the list are very low.

If it isn't on that list go check and it might be active. If you already have and it is not there I would suggest sending them an email. I have always had great dealings with the ladies who work in the set registry area.

I am just one man, but this is just like the PSA Registery.
It is a ego thing.
If you have the money, go for it, but most, I would guess 70 percent of collectors or so, do not. We collect what we can.
But I see it the same way.

Not knocking them, but, though the money is there, the numbers are not.

Just my low level thoughts.

As a low-grade collector, I see the prestige appeal of joining PSA's registry, even if I live at the far left end of its spectrum. Might have a registry

I have one hoped-for-benefit of graded registries and one concern. My own collecting's esoteric, so the benefit's related to personal research about a specific set or range of cards. Researching, say, a group of variations and having them listed by a grading company provides a stamp of authority in the hobby. The flip side (the concern) is anyone buying and holding cards not yet recognized, as I'm sure some do, have strong incentives not to help bring them to light, so research doesn't move ahead as fast as it could -- at least until they're ready to sell. :-)