PSA cards. Do you have a grading range that you typically look for?

[the 'stache]

If there's one thing I've learned since joining this forum, it's to buy the card, and not the grade. That's a wonderful piece of advice that I now employ whenever I look at vintage auctions on Ebay.

But I would ask you guys that do buy graded cards (even if you do so only to free them from their plastic prisons): Is there a grade that you typically look for when buying? Do you start by looking at PSA 6's, and go from there, evaluating each card on sale. Or, do you look at 5's, and see if any of them, in your initial examination at least, might be of better quality?

I'm trying to find a happy medium between buying very fine quality vintage cards without breaking the bank. I'm not looking to ever sell these cards, but I do want to make sure that the cards I buy will maintain a strong resale value just in case the need to sell them were to ever arise.

I understand, too, that the grade range depends on the cards I look at. A 1952 Topps PSA 7 high number card will be expensive as hell, whereas a PSA 7 from the 1973 Topps set will be quite affordable.

I guess I'm just looking for some input from you veterans. I'm the nervous rookie, currently laboring away in AAA, getting ready to be called up to the Big Leagues, and I'd like to know what I should be looking for. Like the game of baseball itself, there are subtle nuances that newbies like me should learn. This is my dipping my toe in the pool before I jump in cannonball-style.

I don't know if that makes any sense. I hope it does!

Thank you!!

[KCRfan1]

I look for ungraded cards. I'll start by looking for corners that are rather sharp ( this is foremost for me ), are there any defects in the card, then centering. Lastly I'll look at price, is it reasonable or a good deal. For graded cards, I'll look at 3's or 4's that I consider undergraded and follow the same criteria. I've been able to find nice cards ( with minor flaws ) at great prices using this approach. I collect for fun, and have no intention of selling my cards so I'm not as picky as an investor or one collecting " high grade " cards. I too buy the card not the holder. I've bought the holder once, a 1952 Topps PSA 9oc at what I consider a good price. Only two cards with this grade, none higher. If there was a 9 w/o qualifiers, I would have passed. I have read your post before Bill, and you seem fairly savvy. I'm sure I'm not sharing anything new to you. I'll be anxious to see what others look for, as we all vary in criteria.

[David W]

Almost all of my collection is ungraded for a couple reasons.

1 - I got caught in the "Graded is better" frenzy and joined PSA 5-6 yrs ago, to get the best Lou Brock set on the registry. After paying a few hundred bucks to get cards graded, I got an epiphany - Why try to impress people I don't know by overpaying for graded cards or paying someone else to tell me what condition they are in?

2 - Low to middle graded cards are a lot more expensive than low to mid grade raw cards.

3 - If I sold a lot of cards on ebay, I would get some of them graded, especially the key HOF'ers. Probably not all the minor stars unless they were 6-7 or better. I doubt very many people are putting a PSA 4-5 62 Topps set together. Those folks will just do a set raw.

[the 'stache]

Thank you Lou and David both.

Lou, I take that as a compliment. Thank you. I feel I've gained a good amount of knowledge since first coming here, but taking that knowledge and actually applying it is something I have yet to do with vintage cards, as I have not really begun to buy them. I've carved my little niche in modern cards for the last two years, focusing on Bowman Chrome prospect autos. Most of them I've bought raw (a few Beckett graded when finding them raw in the condition I wanted was proving an exercise in frustration. The 2010 Bowman Chrome cards especially are notorious for surface scratching as they had a real quality control problem that year). I've assembled a really nice collection, and those cards have helped me enjoy baseball even more. But I'm conflicted, as I am wanting to buy the older cards of the players I've spent my entire life reading about. I've watched Ken Burns' Baseball so many times I've lost track..and I'm watching the entire series again now. I see Willie Mays flying back robbing Vic Wertz, I see Joe DiMaggio hitting in 56 straight, and Teddy Ballgame hitting .406 that same '41 season, and I get so excited. I think to myself "one day I'm going to own cards from both players". Now that I'm collecting again, this is something I can do until the day I kick the bucket, hopefully many years from now

David, I understand the graded card frenzy all too well. It's unbelievable to me how the slightest of differences between two cards can lead to such a drastic change in pricing. I got caught up in it, too for a time. I figured if I was going to buy a card that was just made, why settle for something that isn't perfectly centered when I don't have to. Thankfully that passed. I still look at a card closely before buying it, but if it's not perfect, I don't stress about it. But the experience really helped me develop my eye.

[brewing]

Sometimes a graded 6 will sell for less than a card listed as nm-mt.

Personally, I look for grade 3-4 in cards that are typically out if my price range. For others, I scout the 5-6's for undergraded gems.
If I like the card, I get it, regardless of grade.
I recently passed on a SGC 4 1951 Mantle for an over graded BVG 3 (which came back from SGC as a 2). The price difference wasn't much, but the lower grade looked better to me, the 4 was off centered both ways.

[mintacular]

I find the .5 "bump" cards are normally quite nice and oftentimes better than the cards 1 grade higher i.e. a 6.5 sometimes better than the 7, especially from older flips when standards were more lax...For resale, I think well-centered cards are safer. For example, I find this Mays 6.5 is better than many 7's...

[KCRfan1]

Nice Mays Patrick. Well done. I too agree that .5's often look nicer than the next grade up.

[bobsbbcards]

Yowza! That Mays is beautiful.

I have quite a few graded cards, and I'm very happy with PSA 8 for almost any year, or at least through the 70s. The exceptions are:

1948-51 Bowman PSA 7
1952 Topps PSA 6
1953-1956 Topps PSA 7
1958-1959 Topps PSA 7
1962 Topps PSA 7
1971 Topps PSA 7

[whodey14]

When I buy vintage I don't look at anything lower than a 5. The set I am doing (1953 Bowman Color) I am doing only PSA 5s NQ. However I have many other vintage pieces ranging from PSA 5-9. I just didn't want to commit myself to a PSA 7 set of Bowman Color however I may end up picking up a higher end Reese although my PSA 5 Pee Wee is a very nice example.

[the 'stache]

Originally Posted by whodey14

When I buy vintage I don't look at anything lower than a 5. The set I am doing (1953 Bowman Color) I am doing only PSA 5s NQ. However I have many other vintage pieces ranging from PSA 5-9. I just didn't want to commit myself to a PSA 7 set of Bowman Color however I may end up picking up a higher end Reese although my PSA 5 Pee Wee is a very nice example.

I usually look at 5 or 6 to start, and go from there depending on affordability. There are some players where going much higher is cost prohibitive. I'm looking at a PSA 6 1957 Topps Mickey Mantle, and that would set me back about $600.

I don't need mint, but I do want to make sure the cards I buy have eye appeal, and will maintain their value fairly well over time.

[Brianruns10]

For me, grades are only so important. As has been said, buy the card, not the plastic.

And for me, it's all about eye appeal and centering. I'm doing the 52 Topps set, and I'll take a centered PSA 5 over an offcenter 8 any day of the week. And even along the same grade, there can be differences. I've seen 5s that are an ugly off white with mangy corners, and 5s that look like they could be 7s....great color and corners, but usually marred by a subtle flaw like a crease or something.

The main reason I buy graded is two fold: 1) In my area, there simply cannot be found quality vintage cards. There are a few dealers, but most deal in the new junk, and if they have vintage, it's in abhorrent condition, yet priced at NRMT levels. And they have no education. One dealer I encountered has a nice range of vintage, including some Goudey 33s, but they were all PO1s, and the key cards he had were so badly trimmed I had trouble believing he could be so ignorant.

So online is pretty much the only way I can get good vintage, and being unable to visually inspect and measure the cards to ensure they are original, I opt for the security of graded.

Now of course there is the danger of cracked card housings, but I've so far avoided this pretty easily by only doing business with dealers who specialize in vintage wares.

I have little sympathy for people suckered into buying bogus 52 Mantles in cracked holders, when the seller deals in Nascar merch and cards dating no earlier than 1995. Raises a big red flag right there. Dealers are not all created equal.

So as they say, buy the card not the plastic, but when you can't hold the card in your hands, get it wrapped up in plastic...you don't know where it's been :P