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Posted By: JimCrandell

I still think that for high grade cards, that the pop reports are broadly accurate. I have probably resubmitted less than a tenth of 1% of all the psa cards I have and none of them were psa 8s or better. Usually it was a card that came back as altered and I didn't agree. Saying that, my experience has been that for people with a sharp eye that the rate of bumps has been pretty high.

My recommendation for buying vintage cards would be to look at the smr, then look at the pop and then check vintagecardprices.com(I think thats the name) for where the card has traded in recent sales). After all that is done you also have to figure how many well-heeled collectors are completing the set. In football I try to consider whether MOSH or Shopping Lucy will go after the card. In baseball I have found that it is a good idea to just step back when guys like Louchios and Spence are building their sets. Recently 1959 Topps low pops have gone for amazing prices as several collectors battle over the low pop cards.

It does make it easier if you are working on a lot of sets so you can back away from the hot ones.

Jim