Am I the only one who thinks the difference between PSA 9's and 10's is crazy?

[pokerplyr80]

Originally Posted by ls7plus

IMHO, the above statement is far too much of a generalization. It is much more likely in the long run that those cards which are significant and scarce to downright rare in any of the higher grades at all will go up substantially in value, while those "elite" level cards which are readily available in only slightly lesser grades are highly unlikely to even hold their present stratospheric values. Which card stands a better chance of being worth 10X or more what was paid for it in 10-20 years--my 1929 R316 Mel Ott rookie, one of just two graded PSA 7, with none higher, or the heavily dissed--oops, I mean discussed--1993 SP Derek Jeter in PSA 10? And that's not even taking into account the fact that Ott was clearly the far better player by virtually any objective measure which takes into account the player's worth compared to the average player of his time and different playing conditions in different eras.

As of this moment, PSA has graded 3,924 Jeter 7's; 280 Jeter 7.5's; 8,380 Jeter 8's: 281 Jeter 8.5's; 579 Jeter 9's; and 22 Jeter 10's. As another member posted, PSA tends to be very harsh on these cards, downgrading them quite a bit for the smallest of imperfections, which also means that there is not a whole lot of actual difference between an "8," or even a "7.5" and a "10." My bet is that over time, the PSA 10 Jeter will suffer the same fate as the very highest graded coins (grades 60-70 are all part of the "mint" spectrum in coin grading) which are desirable but readily available in just slightly lesser grades--after their initial surge, those "elite" level coins tended to fall the farthest and fastest.

Just as in coins, where there is very little substantive difference in the item being slabbed and graded, and the item is not at all hard to obtain in only slightly lesser numerical or technical grade, the proposition that the holder and the paper slip justify an immense difference in price in and of themselves simply won't last all that long. Instead, reality will hit hard--very hard!

Just sayin,

Larry

The 93 Jeter is the closest card to a 52 Mantle in the modern era. The most popular card of the most popular and collected player of the era. And he played for the Yankees and won several titles. That seems to matter more in the collecting world than being the better player. There are guys who played in Mantle's era you can argue were better players, but their cards will never match his in terms of popularity or value.

Since I got back into collecting the 93 Jeter in PSA 10 has already gone from selling for 30k to recent sales of 75-100k. While I'm certainly not a hobby expert I have a fair amount of knowledge and haven't heard of the Ott card you mentioned. How much has its value changed over the same time period? Without looking it up I would guess less than the 2.5-3× the Jeter has increased by. And I would place my bet on the Jeter having more long term potential.