Holy plastic, Batman! The power of the PSA registry in full display!
 

These two cards sold in the same venue (eBay), by the same seller, one minute apart, and were graded the same, so all variables should be equal here.

1959 Topps Bill Henry - PSA 10 - sold for $1,136

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1959-Topps-B...item51b01ccfd1

1959 Topps Bill Henry - SGC 98 (equal to PSA 10) - sold for $167

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1959-Topps-B...item51b01cd014

Both cards look equally nice - there might be a touch of a centering issue on the back of the SGC card, or it might be tilted a bit in the case. Either way, it looks like the PSA registry can drive a 7x price on the identical card!

Full disclosure: I purchased the SGC card.

Haha, then you got the better end of the deal :)

Is it me or are they different cardstocks? The SGC appears much whiter on the back.

n

or get it for 5$ in mint raw

I'd almost rather have the Lionel Carter SGC for the extra money.

No doubt...

Where is this $5 Mint card that you speak of?

Couldn't agree more. I believe the new SGC Registry will go live in a week or 2. While it will be an improvement, it may be too late. PSA has a huge lead in this portion of the market.

ridiculous

LOL, over a grand for a PSA 10 common?

Just brainless to me. I will never understand why someone would pay that much for a card like that.

Wow! Now I know why I see some guys regularly at shows pouring through dealers stacks of commons hoping to find a card they think will bag a 9 or 10. Not for me, but I can see the obvious allure.

I do that but I am not looking for 9's and 10's. Just nice cards. Nice pickup Scott.

Psa
 

I am not particularly a fan of PSA but I have to agree. I have been tracking Desert Shields Chipper Jones cards for a while. It seems as if a PSA 10 grade brings a premium over other grading companies as well. This card just sold:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1991-Topps-D...-/380691360300

For $4,839, while the BVG counterpart in Gem Mint goes for about $2,100. I am thinking of converting mine to PSA and I am not a registry participant.

Z Wheat

I find it hard to believe you can remove a 10 from any holder, without doing something to it in the process, that will knock it down to at least a 9.

Then again, maybe someday PSA will come up with a 10.5 or an 11. Call it "Super Gem Minty Mint" or something.

The odds that a 9.5 BVG crosses to a 10 PSA imo are slim, unless you are willing to sub it a bunch of times as many dealers do. At $65+ a try I can see it as a huge money maker for PSA and still be worth it tying 10+ times when the upside is 2.5k.

I saw a lot more of this going on at the national than I expected, the resubmit/crossover game is huge.

I think it would be called Pristine like the BGS 10 or SGC 100

+1
 

I guess that could be a self serving boom for business! I am sure there are those that would be lining up to try to have their 10's "bump" up :rolleyes:

Beckett
 

Scott,

Aren't Beckett cards typically graded a little more "harsh" than say a PSA card? I thought that was the general presumption. I have actually never had a card graded (I purchase graded though) so am unsure. Just curious.

Thanks.

While I do think Beckett is a little tougher on vintage (same with SGC), I dont think thats the real issue which is- IS PSA fair on the cards of their competitors when submitted for crossover?

IMO no they are not, I base this on my
limited experience of submitting SGC and BVG cards to them for crossover. When I first started to cross cards I always sent them in the slabs as I felt it was too great a risk to crack. Well as you can guess my success ratio sucked bad, less than 25%. After a few of these tries (about 50 cards) and after reading the CU boards back in the day, I decided to crack 20 of the ones that failed and resubmit. I was amazed at the results, 16 crossed with 4 upgrades, with only 4 not crossing at equal grades. So an 80% success rate on cards that had all failed to cross already. That was the last time I sent any crossovers to PSA. I also dont think I am the only one who feels that way as its pretty much been the norm on CU for years.

What I saw at the national was a line of dealers with cards getting reviews or crossovers on big dollar cards, i even saw this a lot at the SGC booth. I would bet some dealers have stacks of cards they bring in every show for a chance at a bump or crossover as they are well aware when the spread between a grade or between grading companies is so big its worth it to keep trying.

I know a coin dealer who dabbles in cards and he told me he once submitted a coin 23 times to PCGS for review at over $200 a pop, when he finally hit the upgrade his 4k coin became a 30k one.

Registry
 

Interesting. Thanks Scott.