Looking for advice/ feedback

[hutty]

First time on the forum and hoping to get some advice. With all the information out there it can seem a bit intimidating. With some down time I remembered my baseball cards that I probably have not looked at in 20 plus years.

The vast majority of my cards range from 1969-1979. I have several hundred (500-700) from 1972 thru 1977.


I have recently started cataloging them to figure out exactly what I have.

1. Is there any upside to having cards graded? Albeit would send cards that could be might be valuable. Rose, Bench, Yaz, Clemente, misprints, etc
2. If yes, what service of the three would people recommend?
3. With a few thousand cards can you pay someone to appraise or look at the collection and give you an idea of what you have?
4. There are a ton of dealers that advertise on the internet who all say fair and decent. Are there some that are reputable and some that should be avoided?

I realize these are quite a few questions for a first time poster. I am not really looking to sell,just trying to figure out what I have. Any information by those more knowledgeable would be greatly appreciated. If you wish to email direct I can be reached at huttymddu@gmail.com

Stay safe and healthy.

[swarmee]

If you post your location, you might have a board member nearby who can do a rudimentary appraisal/sort for you. I do free appraisals for people in the Florida panhandle.

Basically, if you've got base Topps cards from those sets, you can look most of them up in price guides to at least see which cards are stars or short prints worth selling individually.

As to grading, you'd have to post scans of cards you think are the highest graded. Here is a cheat sheet for how PSA grades: https://www.psacard.com/resources/gr...andards/#cards All three grading companies are under fire right now for failing to detect (or actively looking the other way) thousands of trimmed/altered cards worth millions of dollars. And they're all (maybe SGC is not?) shut down currently because of the coronavirus situation; so their backlog keeps increasing and when they do get the okay to start working again,

For those years, you'd be looking at doing a bulk submission to PSA as your most cost effective and best return on investment if you do choose to grade. But unless the cards are truly mint, they are probably not worth grading.

[RCMcKenzie]

Welcome to the forum. I still have my childhood collection from the seventies. Although, it has great sentimental value, I would not think it has much monetary value as I handled the cards a lot.

You can check eBay for values. My brother was disappointed to learn that the 64 Koufax he bought for $3 in 1982 is still selling for $3 on eBay.

[hutty]

I live in the Baltimore region and grew up on Long Island

Many thanks for the replies and some basic info to get started. I do know that the cards I traded, flipped etc as a kid were 81-84 ( I did stash a few of my favorites players away) Ozzie, Gywnn, winfield, ricky etc.

The earlier cards especially 72-77 I actually bought from a friend. I think I traded him a sling shot, fireworks, and $30 for a a several boxes of cards. Since they were older cards and no one had cards of those years I never touched them, traded them etc. They have not had a hand on them since 1978 probably.


I will drill down on looking at cards based on their grading. I have a little time on my hands when not working.

Quite excited to do some research and get info and advice from others.

Have to say looking at some of the cards (still more to go through) and the players definitely brought me back in time.

[swarmee]

There are definitely guys near Baltimore here. Hopefully one will chime in and help you out.

Here's an example of a really nice looking vintage card that got an 8 NM-MT from a defunct (but pretty accurate until they couldn't detect trimming properly) grading company:

1967 Topps - [Base] #187 - Pedro Ramos [Encased]
Courtesy of COMC.com

Even 8's have to be really strong.

[hutty]

many thanks to all that relied, sent me pm's, and emails. Have some basic knowledge and direction and looking forward to learning and doing more.

Stay safe.