eBay sales baffle me...
 

I've begun to slowly sell off some cards. Got 10 nice cards from the 60s graded. Most came back very low vs my expectations, and based on Ebay sale price did not justify paying for grading. But that was a necessary learning experience for me.

What is really baffling to me is what clearly damaged cards sell for. I just sold a 64 and 69 Clemente together for $44. 64 has a big crease across face of card; 69 has a chunk out of Bob's head. I would have guessed these were maybe worth $5 each. Maybe. I previously sold a 58 Clemente with huge crease, a beat to hell 59 Koufax with tape on it, a 64 Mantle with a hole punch hole through his head, and a 62 Mays that was covered in some kind of goo for $45. I know the buyer at least doubled his money when he resold those same cards on eBay.

I also just sold a 60 McCovey graded SGC40 for $20. I know McCovey isn't Clemente, but that is his rookie card. Also sold a 61 Mays, also a 40, for $17.50. Those two cards were in very nice shape, just had typical wear on corners. Combined for $37.50 vs two Clementes for $44 that have major flaws. :confused:

Maybe I'm just seeing some weird variants in sales here. You obviously can't draw big conclusions based on a couple of data points. But it sure is beginning to seem to me that cards either are in nice shape with sharp corners, or they are not. There doesn't seem to be much room for a middle class in the hobby. To me a crease is worse than four rounded corners, and a hole or missing part of face of card is way worse than a crease. When I was buying cards from 50s and 60s in the early 80s I don't recall seeing a helluva lot with four sharp corners. That was not even an expectation.

Baffling indeed. I had a '58 Mays SGC 40 due to being offcentered 100/0 that would not sell for my starting bid of $14. Broke it out of the slab and it sold for $29. Sometimes it is waste of $ to have them graded.

I think it's somewhat of a psychological thing for the buyer, the graded lower grade cards confirm the card is a beater, whereas raw it's just what it is. I agree it doesn't make sense though.

I'd say there's quite a bit of truth to that. I purposely try to buy PSA 1-3 graded cards with good eye appeal just because of the cheap prices I can get them for. Another thing is that there are a lot of buyers that live and die by VCP prices. I can have a card graded PSA 3 that may have better eye appeal than any PSA 5 on eBay, but if I list it with a BIN just under the PSA 4 average price I guarantee I'm going to get people emailing me telling me that my price is too high and they won't pay more than the VCP average for a PSA 3, but those same people will pay the VCP average for the PSA 5 that doesn't look as good as my cheaper, albeit technically lower grade card. It goes back to the simple "buy the card, not the holder" mantra. If you like the card and the price is right, who cares what the grade on the label says?

I see the point about the psychology of grading. I have one other graded card to sell -- I'm thinking I will bust it out and sell raw and do better.

I think if I were getting back in to this as a serious collector I'd prefer a system where cards would simply be authenticated and that high res scans to some agreed upon standard be provided for buyers to review. The scans on eBay are largely a joke. You pretty much have to trust the grades for a lot of them.

Auctions
 

Clementes, Mantles, and Koufax's almost always sell at least 10% of book no matter how ugly...

Be careful not to project your condition biases on other people, while a crease is a non-starter for you, for others bad centering or a dinged corner is worse...Also, I saw that your McCovey sold at around noon on a weekday...would always try to end them at 9pm-ish EST over the weekend...Most casual collectors are buying at that time...

Lastly, there is just no rhyme or reason sometimes to final prices using an auction format...I used to auction things off here and there but now I feel more comfortable pricing it at a reasonable BIN and waiting for the right buyer. Only problem with that is that you have to wait patiently

There are alot of people like myself who like to buy pure cards, not graded ones. Sometimes I will buy a graded one if it is a great deal but I always bust it out :)

it only takes 2 people putting in a snipe to get a decent dollar for a card...

I completely agree. There are a lot of deals to be had on undergraded 6's, 6.5's & 7's. I bought a bunch of 7's for my sharp 71 set. I thought the 7 assigned to each card was bonkers and ended up getting cards that I thought were clearly NM/MT for under book price (not SMR but regular Beckett). Crack them out of the case and put them in the binder with the rest of my spectacular set.

Graded Cards
 

Me too. I have been collecting since 1957 and I display my sets in binders so graded cards don't work for me. I use a bolt cutter to free them. It works great in seconds. Freed a second 52 Campanella variation/defect ( discussed in another thread) yesterday.

Just to double my confusion I finally signed up for a membership with PSA, and started browsing through the SMR price list. Some of those numbers seem absurd vs real world transactions.

It's funny, but when I first waded back in to this hobby and saw how grading and authenticating had become de riguer in many ways I felt like things were really much more regulated and controlled vs when I started out 30 years ago. Now, after a few months of reading and researching the opposite seems true. The whole grading things seems like a slimy sub-industry to me, which you have to embrace in many cases but certainly would be foolish to trust.