First of all, welcome to the forum, Brad! My name is Bill. Nice to meet you
If you've been reading the pages of Net 54 for years, as you stated, congratulations on taking the plunge!
When you buy a baseball card, the most important question to ask yourself is "am I happy with the card I bought?". If you overpaid a little bit, it's ok if you love it. After all, how can you assign a dollar value to your happiness? I think at one time or another, we'll all overpaid on a purchase, so don't lose any sleep if you've done so here. You'll better learn how to gauge where the market is at for vintage and pre-war baseball cards.
That being said, let's take a look at the recent history of this particular card. There are a few different resources you can go to to narrow down what you should be paying for a baseball card.
Firstly, there's vintage card prices (VCP for short). That's a subscription service that tracks the history of vintage and pre-war baseball card sales. You may have seen this discussed on the forum before. The site
can be located here. You can sign up for 24 hours if you're just wanting to price a few cards. Or, you can sign up for a month at a time. I've only used it a few times, and I've found it yo be pretty intuitive.
The second, and in my opinion the best resource, is card target. Card target is free. But it does not yet track all the sets. People are updating the site to track other sets, and those new sets are made available to the public often. It's a very useful resource that is growing, and you can find it
here.
When you go to card target, go to price history in the upper left corner, and then select the set you are inquiring about. Once you have selected that set (in this case, 1934 Goudey), click on the name of the player. In this case, Mr. Gehrig has two cards in this set: #37, the one I will be buying later this year, and #61, the one you just picked up. Once you've clicked on your particular card, a page with the current auctions comes up. To the right side, you'll see a link for "sales history". Click that. You can then select the tpg, or third party grader, which is PSA. Then select the grade 2 (there's not yet an option for half grades).
Here's a quick link to that sales history:
clicky
You can look at this, and determine how close you were.
The third options is to look at the history of cards sold on Ebay. I'll assume you know how to use Ebay's search, by clicking on the "advanced" link in the upper right hand corner of Ebay's home page. Put the card info in, check mark "sold listings", and go to it.
When considering a card I might purchase, if it's more than $100 or so, I will only buy from sellers I know are reputable. If you're not sure about somebody, don't be afraid to ask here. Google "net54baseball" and their Ebay id, and see if they've been discussed here before. Also, look at the seller's history. If they have a 1934 Goudey Lou Gehrig up for sale at $800, and they don't have any other baseball cards up for sale, then I might raise an eyebrow.
Two other things make me suspicious. One, they are selling a graded card, and there are no returns. Some sellers won't take returns on graded cards, but if they're legit, and the card they're selling is legit, too, then they shouldn't have a problem with a return if there's a problem with the card.
And, as has been already mentioned, if there were any substantial issues with the slab (the card case), they would be very hard to see against a white background.
When I see these kinds of things, Brad, I would contact the seller, and ask them to provide another picture of the card with a dark (ie black) background.
It's hard to give a crash course in detecting problems with slabs. There are certain things you will see as you collect more, things that will stand out to you.
This is a PSA slab. What you're looking for as a tell tale sign of tampering is "frosting", or areas of the slab edge that are bright white. Keep in mind that a little bit of frosting is natural-slabs leave PSA with a little bit showing from the way the cards are sonically sealed. But when you see whole edges displaying this frosting, or corners and the adjacent areas showing a lot of frosting, then you can be suspicious. Take a look at the lower-right corner of this case. It appears to be a brighter white.
There are people that know how to "pop" these cases, take the card out, and put a new card in, and resealing (glue) the card so it won't show any signs of tampering. So, looking for signs of tampering is not always foolproof. The advice you'll get from me, and a lot of the other members of Net 54:
Buy from reputable dealers/sellers.
Don't buy the slab. Buy the card.
If you buy from people that are trustworthy, you greatly reduce the likelihood that you are buying a card that is not authentic.
If you buy the card, not the slab/grade, you are examining the card up close. And examining a card is where you'll see things that don't look right, including cards that have been trimmed, or otherwise altered.
Do you have other 1934 Goudey baseball cards? If you do, compare one of those to the Gehrig when you get it in. Look at them side by side under magnification. You should have at least a 5 x magnifying glass or loupe. 10 x is preferred. If the Gehrig exhibits something that seems off, take a picture, or scan the card with a dark backing, and post that picture here. If you have been sold a bad card, regardless of what the Ebay seller's auction description says, you are protected. And if there's something off, we'll help you to see it.
Good luck, and please let me know when this card gets in.
Bill