Need some help with vintage
 

For the past few years, I have been wanting to understand and better vintage. I want to know what to look out for in fakes, be able to tell the different in real vs fake. I want to know how to determine the price of a card to buy where as I do not get rip off nor does the seller.

When I buy a card or cards, I what to know what I am doing to help me better understand the value of a card.

For example, this past weekend I cam across 2 Roger Maris 62 Topps. One was clean and had 1 corner that was a little rounded. the other Maris was good but OC way off to the right towards his name. The one who had the bad corner wanted $50 for it and the OC was $75. I did not buy either for I thought they were to high on them for the condition they were in.

If someone could be me some help or show me in the right direction, I would great appreciate it.

One thing you can do with raw vintage cards is what you have already done! Pick a player and a year (say 56 Topps Aaron) then do an ebay search for raw cards and start to analyze the condition vs price (also look at the "SOLD" listings and Buy it Now prices too). By isolating one year and one player you will start to get a feel for not just condition, but how condition impacts price.

Eventually you will start to get a feel for why a centered card with a rounded corner will sell for less than a sharp cornered card that's off center. (generally it's because PSA punishes centering less than corner wear if you decide to have cards graded)


It takes some time, but if you use the method above it will at least get you some time on tools as far as learning what you should pay for a card of a certain condition.

Go to a sports card store that sells vintage and buy a couple of commons from all years you're interested in. Then touch them. Feel the fronts, feel the backs. See how flimsy/springy they are. Get a price guide. For mid-grade vintage cards, it's not going to be too awful to bound the high side of pricing.
Look at COMC.com ; there are millions of vintage cards for sale and you can judge various conditions and have them all shipped together. You can see the pricing discrepancies between VG, EX, and NM cards and figure out which fits your budget. You can see how writing on cards, creases, or off-centeredness affects sales prices.

Sorry, I couldn't read that.

The suggestion of picking up a few commons to get a feel for what each year is like is a good one.

Likewise, I think you did well to pass up the two cards. If a card doesn't really stand out to you then there are few reasons to buy it. Those might be if it's a really tough card that you might wait years to see another one available, or if it's a genuine but off condition card at a great price. Like either of those two for say $5.

Even if the price is fair, if you don't like the card you'll probably start looking for a better one right away, so why buy it at all?

Everyone will have different ideas of what's "good enough" for some it's got to be slabbed with a fairly high grade and centered. Others like centering over nice corners. Some like me don't much care one way or another as long as the price for the card in the condition it's in is reasonable. ("reasonable " will also vary )

Steve B

I'll take all the off-condition 1962 Maris cards you can get me at $5 a pop let alone ones with "one bad corner" and "good but O/C."

Lots of good advice in this thread. I did want to say though that a centered 1962 Topps Maris with one bad corner is a decent buy at $50.

I like the advice to familiarize yourself with commons. An inexpensive way to make the inevitable mistakes.

Also like almost anything else in life if you can find a mentor you'll learn quickly. Go scout out the cards you want, form your opinion, and then bring a knowledgeable friend in to see if he thinks you're on the mark. He can then go over, in detail, things you need to look for, pricing rationale etc...

I like the idea of going over commons. Just the other week, I bought 144 commons of 54 Bowman for not very much. SO, with that advice. I will take a look at my 54 commons and go from there.

Thank you everyone. I still want to hear more advice. I could use all of the help I can

If you're looking to trade or sell some of those '54 Bowmans, please check out the thread I just bumped in the 50's B/S/T section.