Will major auction houses submit high end graded cards for review before auction ?
 

I have a two high grade 1952 Topps Mantle cards ( graded a PSA 6 and PSA 7 ) that would see substantially higher hammer prices if they received a half point bump in a review. My question is if I consigned them to a major AH would they typically submit them to PSA for review ? I know the cost of this service is high and assume the cost would be borne by me ?
Just curious what the AH would do.
Thanks for any insight
Russ

I’m going to assume there are no more than a handful of auction houses you would consider consigning those cards to, let’s say five. Why not ask the AHs and get actual answers rather than speculation from people here who have no real idea?

Agreed; contact the auction house and let them know you want to have your cards reviewed by PSA for grades before you auction them. They'll most likely facilitate.

Agreed, but at least this way we got to see these outstanding examples.:D

Yes they would be happy to. Call them and ask. They will probably even cover the cost to review. If I owned an AH I certainly would. Nice cards!

So you picked up the PSA 8 from the last auction and now you’re ready to sell your duplicates?

It's $5000 apiece to get these redone. and I'm sure you expect the auction house to kick back part of the BP as well?

I personally don't think the 6 stands a chance at an upgrade. The image of the 7 is a little small but the centering is pretty sweet, not a fan of the top right corner, but there's a chance it improves.

I would expect half of the bp back if I sent these off. Are we figuring about 700k give or take for the pair? If so, that's 70k for the auction house, assuming they would give back half of a 20% bp. I would subtract the grading fees from my cut of the bp if I were negotiating.

OK that sounds pretty reasonable, (though I'm not sure on the sales estimate). I thought it was going to be another case of expecting an auction company to give it's services away because they're all such nice guys :D

Lol I would be fair. I know you guys have a business to run. But I would also try to negotiate the best deal for me. Consignments like this don't come along often for most auction houses. I have never personally sent a consignment this valuable off, and the 700k figure is just a guess with no research done. Aside from the other thread in which a worse 7 sold for 468k.

REA sold a 7 Spring 2021 in an ostensibly better market for "only" $260k and Heritage had one after that for about $300k if I remember correctly. It's always tough to account for outliers, and using them to predict the next sale is risky. It's like the guys who think they always have to sell over the most recent VCP as opposed to the recent average, or even throwing out the top and bottom sales and THEN taking the average.

There's a lot of people who learn the hard way not to chase auction results as a consignor. A big part of the reason is OK that one sold for $468k, but now that buyer is out of the market. Now the card is only worth one bid over what the THIRD PLACE bidder was willing to go. That could be $450k or it could be $300k if the top two guys were the ones pushing the card most of the way. So just because something went big doesn't mean it will necessarily do so again, and sometimes the sooner after a big sale you come to market with the same item the WORSE your results!

Fair enough, that figure was just a guess. If we're figuring 450-500k for the pair my ask would be the same percentage wise. And I have no doubt most AHs would be willing to work the grading fees in to the deal.

I do agree I wouldn't try to bump the 6, but probably would with the 7.

Have you tried selling them direct privately ? I'd avoid the review...leave that up to perspective buyer. Needless to say these are both beautiful. If I had the cash I'd be reaching out to you right now to try and purchase. I'm sure you will be getting some PM's from people, mostly AH's though.

While you're at it, try to see if PSA will notate them as Type 1 and Type 2, since you have one of each. ;-)

Both cards were almost certainly graded by Reza and would be again upon review, I believe. PSA's half grade assignments have almost no thyme or reason to them IMO. Heritage has a former PSA head grader on staff that will review cards for bumps for you.

+1 Agreed

Great Cards and Good Luck either way

And....
 

Add to the above the inefficiency of the market (Not all willing buyers participate in every auction) and you could realize that an auction is not usually the best place to sell a card.

Both of those cards are more recent grades (based on the lighthouse label and cert), I would think it a waste of your $$ to try to get them reviewed - as others have mentioned for sure not on the 6. given the potential difference in value, may be worth a crap shoot on the 7, but would really need to examine it under magnification to make that call.

From the scan, the top right border on the 7 keeps it from going higher.

I think we're all seeing the same issues. Hopefully OP takes that into consideration.

Beautiful cards. They would, but I don't think they will get the bump. Good problem to have though :)

Lord, that 6 just jumps off the screen. What great color! Maybe, as someone suggested, go the private sale route. There are a billion guys out there, some with fat wallets, that dream of nothing but your cards.

+1 on that!

That 6 looks like it's worth a review. Super nice card. The 7 looks overgraded already with the top right corner. Still an incredible card, but I think any money spent to try and review that would be a waste.

FYI....Both cards were re slabbed but never reviewed

Why not collect one at each grade , now that would be impressive !!

The centering on that 7 Mantle is incredible. If you were to auction it off, it would break a new record for a PSA 7 without question. There's no scenario whatsoever that it doesn't surpass $500k at auction in my opinion (assuming it goes to a major auction house that is). PSA's half-grades mean almost nothing. At least with SGC, they are fairly consistent with them. If the card has great centering, color and registration, you'll usually get the +0.5 half-grade bump. At PSA though, they just roll a pair of loaded dice and if it lands on snake eyes, you win. That 7 should absolutely be in a 7.5 holder (or a 6.5 if you think that's too high). It should never be in a 6, 7, or 8. Eye-appeal matters, and supposedly that's what PSA claims they give out half-grades for. This one has it in spades.

Interesting. Where did you see that claim by PSA?

I mean I guess it makes sense for them to say: "This is a really nice 7. It would be an 8 except for this technical flaw so . .
"

Sent from my SM-S906U using Tapatalk

From the original announcement:

“In order for a card to be considered for the half-point increase, it must exhibit qualities that separate it from the average card within the particular grade. In general, the centering may be the most important factor in achieving the half-point increase with eye appeal being so crucial in the grader evaluation. Since centering is so important and clearly visible to most collectors, the strength or weakness of the centering will have a significant impact on the final outcome.”

https://www.psacard.com/articles/art...ing-your-cards