A post-war jeremiad. collecting nm or better

[vintagebaseballcardguy]

Originally Posted by nolemmings

What is the future for 1960's commons graded nm-mt 8? With grading costs going up dramatically it makes little sense to submit unless you’re confident a 9 is in your future, which of course is a complete crap shoot.

I’m sitting on several dozen commons graded 8 from the 60's, about half football, in roughly equal numbers of PSA and SGC. Not entirely sure why I got these, as I never would compete in a registry and I’ve never been it in for resale. I guess I just wanted nice cards in a protected holder, and would pick them up when the price was reasonable or better. I figured one day I might have them reholdered in a uniform slab, under some sort of bulk submission re-holder special that was probably always just a figment of my imagination. For now they just sit, and are in some ways an eyesore, because about half of whatever sets they represent are in binders and the other half are kept elsewhere in different slabs. Hard to enjoy (I know, first-world problems).

Anyway, I cracked open a dozen or so yesterday and put them in binders, where they display nicer and don’t occupy so much space. Now I’m trying to decide whether it’s better to unload the rest and buy nice ungraded cards, but I see that in many cases these are going as high as the slabbed versions. Maybe it would be better to just crack ‘em all open and binder them, but if so, they likely lose value and I certainly won’t pay 15 or 25 dollars a pop to resubmit them down the road if I change my mind. Anyone else facing this dilemma?

Sorry for the ramble, but the hobby has become depressing for me lately, and at times I see a closet full of stuff I just ought to sell and be finished. Part of me says that when I see more than a hundred of every card in a set available at one time, depending on how nice I want it to look, I can always pick up the collecting bug again later. Another part says I’m getting older and poorer, and the hobby is going the other direction, so I should just call it a day and enjoy the memories.

Thanks for the soapbox-- I hope to feel a little better getting this out of my system.

Hey, Todd, don't feel like the Lone Ranger. I qualify all of my remarks that follow with the statement that there are a million different ways to collect cards, and I don't presume to have discovered "the way." It's just that I will turn 48 in a couple of months, and I care less and less about how many feel the hobby should be done vs. what I have found I prefer over my lifetime as a collector.

I understand where you are coming from on pretty much every issue you've raised. Having faced the same dilemma in the past, I'd personally just crack the commons for my sets and be done with it. Sure, you might be able to attract buyers for high grade slabbed commons, but it feels like set builders in general aren't as numerous as they once were and those building graded sets are less numerous still.

It's almost like you looked into my mind when you created your post. I, too, can always find multiple examples of nearly anything I am looking for. It's simply a matter of how much I want to spend and how nice a set I feel like I have to have. If I recall, you are also a prewar collector so you know that offers a greater challenge than mainstream postwar sets. Prewar collecting doesn't always offer multiple examples of what you are seeking. I have also gone down that prewar road, but that era just doesn't resonate with me the way 50s and 60s baseball does. To each his own. There's no shortage of most of the postwar mainstream stuff. No need to overpay, unless you're into competing on a registry. I am not one of those collectors.

Like you, I am starting to feel like the hobby is going in a direction contrary to what I'd prefer. At the risk of being shamed for admitting it, I have recently taken delight in low grade vintage and collecting the Heritage and Flagship sets. These options are much more manageable financially, and I find that I derive the same level of satisfaction as when I was going for higher grade vintage and fretting over each and every common I was inserting into my 50s and 60s sets. Basically, I have made the decision that if my participation in card collecting is to continue and endure, I'm going to have to adjust my methods. So far, the above is what I've come up with.

Hopefully this helps your thought process in some way. Sorry for the ramble.