Grading 101

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Posted By: Elm

Hi. I have been completing and upgrading my 1957 to 1973 Topps sets for some time now. At some point in the future I am probably going to sell it all off. It's just reality. Since I've never had anything graded, I was hoping maybe some of the experts on this board could give us all a quick lesson in grading. In other words, without getting too bogged down in absolute specific details, you can cover which companies are the best for cards of this era and what would the cost be to grade a bunch of these cards? Kind of an open ended question and I'm sorry if it's been covered before.

I know you have to join, for instance, PSA and then there seems to be various levels of service, maybe based on turnaround time? What about postage to and fro? I assume it's paid for separately. Are there certain standards?

Say I wanted to get 100 cards graded without regard to turnaround time, what would be the estimated cost? Or say a smaller amount of cards--25. These cards would be mainly HOF'ers like Mantle, Koufax, Aaron, Clemente and Mays, but would also include, say, good conditioned high numbers, etc. A decent mix of relatively valuable cards.

As I said, I know nothing about the complexities of grading (although I know enough not to bid on those obviously fake Wagners, etc., in the other thread), so I'd appreciate any pertinent info you can give me. Thanks.

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Posted By: Steve

These guys could help you better. Oh, post some photos of your cards as well.

http://www.network54.com/Forum/579392/

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Posted By: Scott Mt. Joy

The post war forum would be a better place for this post but I'll help.

I would say for the cards you have your best bet is to have them graded by PSA followed by SGC. If you were going to keep them I would say it was the other way around, I prefer SGC for my cards. 1950-1973 bring more money most of the time from PSA so thats why you should choose them.

As far as cost, when you join psa you get 6 fee subs for the $100 membership- use these on your most expense and best condition HOFer, send in cards like 57 Robinsons RC, 63 Rose, 58 Mantle, etc. USE PSA SMR to look up the card values so you can send in the most expensive ones. I would recomend sending these in first and then wait for you to get them back with grades so you get an idea of how your cards grade and to help make your next sub better. Then with what is left pick your best 100 and use their bulk submission, that will be $6 a card plus postage, go with all mantles, aarons, mays, clemente and koufax, these all sell better graded even in low grades. Once you have those then start looking for lower tier HOFers but cards that have the best corners and make sure the card is centered, psa is a killer on giving out Off Center (OC) which lowers any grade by 2.

Once you get your bulk sub in if your cards all come in at psa 8-10's then get another batch of your next best 100 out the door. If your cards in the first 100 come back mainly 7 and below, then you probably want to sell the rest raw. Most commons from those years will need to be 8+ to really make it worth grading a lot. That an most people who are not familiar with grading always think their cards are NM-MT++ and will come back all 9's then these people are shocked when their mint cards come back 6-7's.

I hope that helps, need anything else post over on the post war baseball forum and I will do my best to answer.

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Posted By: Elm

Thanks for the info!! Much appreciated.

(I thought this was a general sort of forum, that's why I posted it here.)

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Posted By: leon

Did you happen to read the top of the page before jumping in? Nothing personal just curious? It states:

"Hello to all visitors! This is a moderated forum for the discussion of Pre-WWII baseball cards and related topics."


regards....

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Posted By: Corey

I don't think he read the top, but he had his questioned answered. So that's great!

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Posted By: Elm

No, I didn't read that small print. I see the large "Net 54 Vintage Baseball Card Forum" up top. Innocent mistake. Didn't know this was a rude place, but oh well.

Either way, I would've posted here, because I imagine the people who collect the pre WW2 stuff would be able to answer my questions. The fact I collect post WW2 stuff, in this context, is meaningless.

Thanks to the people who nicely offered me info.

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Posted By: leon

I didn't mean to be rude so I apologize if I came off that way....good luck in the hunt. All collecting is good collecting in my book...take care

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Posted By: Paul S

I didn't perceive Leon's comment as at all rude. He moderated -- that's what moderators do. Want to see (or read) rude? If nothing's said and people randomly begin to post post-war threads in this section because there are not reminders, then I'll bet a lot of people here will be rude.

edited to say: good luck with the grades

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Posted By: Elm

--Edited to not respond to a "piler-on"--

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Posted By: Paul S

I wasn't piling on. I was sincere about the good luck with the grades. Those were sincere happy faces, not sarcastic. happy happy happy.

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Posted By: Brad

Paul,

No One Cares, like Elm says "case closed"!

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Posted By: Elm

Hey Paul.
I saw your smiley faces and took your post in the manner it was intended. I had a sarcastic reply about piling on, but there's no option for smiley faces in my browser here, so I deleted the post in case people didn't know I was kidding.

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Posted By: Scott Mt Joy

Welcome to the boards Elm and dont worry much about it, newbie mistake, having a thick skin here helps too, haha. That said there is no better place for vintage cards and the sharing of that knowledge.

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Posted By: Paul S

Elm, would love to have as a regular over on the post-war side. A lot of good knowledge there. Your collection sounds like you'll fit right in.

Brad, I wasn't fishing -- not my style. Perhaps the tone of my initial post was misinterpreted. However, some people do care, because I frequently see the gentle reminders here pointing to the post-war board all the time.