Crossover for Set Registery - Thoughts?

[markf31]

As I have begun my journey in collecting vintage cards, I have come to an issue that I'm sure others have had to think about or deal with and that is if I should crossover cards in order to register my future sets with PSA and/or SGC.

As I collect towards the completion of a set I'm never worried about if the card(s) I'm purchasing are PSA or SGC, I look for the specific grades that I'm collecting and purchase accordingly. But in the future, when I have completed a set it would be nice, I think, to register it but I will have a mix of PSA and SGC. I plan on crossing over to which ever holds a majority of the cards in that particular set to minimize the costs in crossing over.

Anyone have thoughts, comments or suggestions on this?

[pgellis]

When I first started collecting T206 (about 6.5 years ago) I purchased both PSA & SGC as well as some raw cards. Whatever I could get my hands on at the grade that I was collecting.

After about 3 or 4 months, I decided that I wanted to only collect SGC because I wanted to display my cards and I liked the look of the SGC holder much better. I also liked their grading of cards.

So, by that time I probably had about 6 PSA cards in my collection. Over the years, I sold one of those PSA cards and in at least 2 different submissions, I tried to cross over the remaining 5 PSA graded cards. Only 1 of those 5 PSA cards actually crossed over to SGC in the same grade.........20% success rate with crossing from PSA to SGC. Now, I know that isn't a high number of submissions to totally get an accurate picture, but that is my experience.

So, back to your question, if you do want to go one way or the other (PSA or SGC), the sooner you decide to do it the better for you. Crossing over from one to the other is never a guarantee of success, never.

You may buy a PSA6 Hall of Famer for a lot of money and then try to cross it to SGC without success. Now you may take a loss on selling that PSA6 Hall of Famer and then pay more to get it in SGC down the road, losing money for yourself in the long run.

[frankbmd]

If I owned SGC or PSA, I would welcome your crossover business. That is why registries exist. Feed your ego and their pockets.

As a collector, I would consider it ridiculous. If you want a registry set, buy the cards in the holder you want to begin with. Bastard sets with cards in different slabs and even raw cards are fine with me. You might call me a mutt collector, but I have a little left over to buy more cards at the end of the day.

[Leon]

Unless you want to compete on one of the registries, which some folks seem to enjoy, then I suggest having a site to scan your cards to. That way you don't have to spend money on crossing them over. Whatever makes you happy though is what you should do.

[travrosty]

I still don't understand the set registry. who cares? People go from collecting the cards to collecting numbers. if people want to collect numbers, I can sell them the number 5, and the number 7, and the number 1, but hurry someone is contemplating buying the number 5 this afternoon.

It's a way for the card companies to make more money, and puts the collector in an endless quest to buy more expensive cards and /or submit them again and again to the same companies to get the "number" they are looking for.

What if the card was blank and just had a big number 8 on it and you kept submitting it to psa until you got the coveted Ted Williams grade on it? Right not it is only an Al Kaline, but keep submitting it to PSA and they might bump it up to Williams.

Insanity. People hung up on numbers. Then they have a ceremony at the end of the year and pat themselves on the back, and usually the multi-millionaires get most of the awards and so what? If I had millions I could put together a near perfect set too in pretty short order. The Dmitri Young collection is for sale and if someone bought it ALL what a collector they would be, huh? It would put them at the top of some registry and they could get a prize and get in the PSA newsletter. Meanwhile the shlub who has been carefully collecting a set for decades under a constrained budget and isn't spending a fortune slabbing them all is some putz, huh? He's not at the top of some chest puffing registry that you could buy your way to the top if you had enough money. I have nothing against wealthy people by the way, I like money. But the registry isn't a fair playing field as far as putting the time in over the years, and simply buying your way on.


They want the mid range collectors to join the registry because they will never be at the top, they will always be behind the wealthiest collectors, but they will try like heck to buy a card that is a little more expensive, that they have to send to psa to get it on their registry, then their registry number will bump up a little bit, and it keeps them hooked to eternally playing the "collecting a number" game.

I collect cards.

[Jay Wolt]

Originally Posted by travrosty

I still don't understand the set registry. who cares? People go from collecting the cards to collecting numbers. if people want to collect numbers, I can sell them the number 5, and the number 7, and the number 1, but hurry someone is contemplating buying the number 5 this afternoon.

It's a way for the card companies to make more money, and puts the collector in an endless quest to buy more expensive cards and /or submit them again and again to the same companies to get the "number" they are looking for.

What if the card was blank and just had a big number 8 on it and you kept submitting it to psa until you got the coveted Ted Williams grade on it? Right not it is only an Al Kaline, but keep submitting it to PSA and they might bump it up to Williams.

Insanity. People hung up on numbers. Then they have a ceremony at the end of the year and pat themselves on the back, and usually the multi-millionaires get most of the awards and so what? If I had millions I could put together a near perfect set too in pretty short order. The Dmitri Young collection is for sale and if someone bought it ALL what a collector they would be, huh? It would put them at the top of some registry and they could get a prize and get in the PSA newsletter. Meanwhile the shlub who has been carefully collecting a set for decades under a constrained budget and isn't spending a fortune slabbing them all is some putz, huh? He's not at the top of some chest puffing registry that you could buy your way to the top if you had enough money. I have nothing against wealthy people by the way, I like money. But the registry isn't a fair playing field as far as putting the time in over the years, and simply buying your way on.


They want the mid range collectors to join the registry because they will never be at the top, they will always be behind the wealthiest collectors, but they will try like heck to buy a card that is a little more expensive, that they have to send to psa to get it on their registry, then their registry number will bump up a little bit, and it keeps them hooked to eternally playing the "collecting a number" game.

I collect cards.

I have sets w/ PSA & SGC and use both their registries and it has nothing to do w/ numbers or competition.
Its like having an online checklist of what you have and what you need and both allow scans to be added.
So its pretty handy when you are on the road and want to view your collection.
I also like the uniformity of the slabs. And believe me I won't cash in my $50 PSA-8 for a $1000 PSA-9.
Not all registry participants think in those terms.

[markf31]

Originally Posted by Jay Wolt

I have sets w/ PSA & SGC and use both their registries and it has nothing to do w/ numbers or competition.
Its like having an online checklist of what you have and what you need and both allow scans to be added.
So its pretty handy when you are on the road and want to view your collection.
I also like the uniformity of the slabs. And believe me I won't cash in my $50 PSA-8 for a $1000 PSA-9.
Not all registry participants think in those terms.

I agree Jay.

When I start down the road of collecting a set, I know my budget, I know what the cards in each grade are approximately worth and I set out to collect a grade that I can reasonably complete the set in, given my collecting budget. I would never blow my budget just to upgrade a single card from a 7 to an 8…just so I can say I have an 8, that’s not how I collect.

I like the benefits of tracking my set online, and I find the population reports to be a little helpful as well as I can see situations where I will settle for lower grade cards that are difficult to find, or are low in population as I know they sometimes tend to demand a premium.

[hammer]

Just think with out PSA and SGC we would be back selling near mint-mint cards to dealers for vg-ex money as we would be back at the mercy of the card dealers. And buy the way when you sell your slabbed cards and you will or a relative will eventually you will receive more money for them. I can just see the expression on a card dealers face when you bring him raw to sell to them. first question why are cards raw have they been trimmed? second did you try to have them graded yet? and so on and so on you get what im saying. Graded cards when you go to sell you will receive more money.

[markf31]

I appreciate the feedback that has been posted already!

Just from reading the first few replies, I'm already rethinking my strategy. I do prefer SGC graded cards but I don't want to restrict myself to collecting only SGC, I could unknowling be passing on a great PSA graded deal in the future...as the saying goes, buy the card and not the holder.

I think my strategy has morphed into buying the cards that meet my condition requirement regardless of the holder and then in the future look to trade or turn-over any PSAs when I am able to find a comparable SGCs.

I'm still new to the boards here, so I apprectiate any and all feedback. I'm enjoying my experience here and learning all that I can.