Set Registry

[Archive]

Posted By: warshawlaw

We seem to have a "class warfare" thread about once a year, usually a few months before the National.

I've been on both sides of the aisle, so to speak, since I can "waste" a lot more money on cards than some but not even a fraction of what others spend. In other words, I share all of your perspectives. If you have the $$ to buy high end cards and it floats your boat, great. If you don't or simply prefer to collect the least expensive cards you can find, that's great too. Remember, it is just trading paper (money) for cardboard (cards) that none of us can take with us in the end.

I will say this as to the registry concept. I am in a highly competitive "alpha male" profession. The LAST thing I want to do w/my leisure time is compete. I reject the registry conceptually for that reason. Just my preference. I prefer to use my card collecting as a chance to meet and spend time with good folks who share my passion for baseball and its history. If some folks want to compete with others over who has the "better" cards, fine, but I won't be playing along.

Edited to say: hey, I'm #100!!!

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Posted By: Rich klein

And we should never make fun of a collector because he/she seemingly spends too much on a card or because a collector only wants a "beater" because he/she are dedicated collectors trying to finish a set/collection as cheaply as possible.

As long as we understand:

Everyone will make a mistake

Not everyone can afford all the cards/collectibles they want

No one should make fun of someone for their collecting pursuit

We'll all have a happier board and Leon and myself won't have anything to talk about when we do lunch in the near future

Rich

[Archive]

Posted By: Spencer Wolff

A lot of these prewar sets, and others I'm sure, are tough to do with help, maybe impossible without it. Some cards never hit ebay or major auctions. Some cards go from collector to collector, and if you don't know other collectors who share your particular interest, then you may miss out. Or another way, you may come across something that you like, but someone else may love it, and it's nice to pass something on to someone who is really passionate about what they are doing. Both of which are more difficult to do without the registry. I think those guys who spend the big bucks, it's not just an investment, they love it. Otherwise, they would just buy rental property or something.

As for T206collectors thoughts on SGC being so much better than PSA, did anyone see the SGC 50/4 Joe Jackson '14 Cracker Jack on ebay? Listed several times over several months for $11,500. The one with a completely rounded lower left corner! Did anyone see the PSA 4 Jackson on ebay that just sold for $13,300? One of those was VG-EX, and it wasn't in the SGC holder. The SGC would be a 3 if holdered with PSA, and an average 3 at that. I have had 20+ SGC cards come back from PSA without crossing because they were 'miss graded' by SGC. So, SGC doesn't cross easily to PSA, similar to your stated problem with crossing PSA to SGC. Sometimes mistakes are made.

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Posted By: T206Collector

Was this the 1914 Cracker Jack you were talking about?

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Posted By: Spencer

I'm guessing you are attempting to take a shot at me. But good point, because the Jackson in an SGC 50/4 looks the same as this Wagner PSA 3 you show that I just bought. And this Wagner is not a good 3, lower end for sure, if it were a better looking 3, it would have gone for $4,500 and not the $3,000 I spent. So, I'm happy..Whoopeee.

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Posted By: steve yawitz

...but I thought I'd chime in as one who's gone from being very enthusiastic about PSA's registry - mainly with hockey cards, I have to note - to thinking seriously about joining the Slab Liberation Army.

I was never insanely competitive with building sets but I did like to have cards that were as nice as I could afford. Plus registries do a fabulous job of tapping into collectors' neurotic side. (Mine is considerable.) And having a few sets listed was a good way to make some connections both for card deals and for just shootin' the breeze. (For what it's worth, I haven't noticed that as much in baseball as in hockey.)

Over time, though, it just seemed increasingly absurd to pay three to four times the price of a PSA 7 for a PSA 8 when the 8 might just be marginally better looking than the 7. Or not as appealing in a few cases. Coupled with my growing cynicism toward the grading industry in general, that realization spelled the end of collecting high-grade post-war cards for me.

I still have a couple of nice hockey sets from 1910 and 1923 listed and was even pretty active with one of them recently, but most of my hobby time and money has been devoted to prewar baseball over the last year. Almost all of it has either been or has wound up in PSA holders, but I'm at the point where it just seems foolish to conintue with PSA and with grading in general.

I doubt that PSA's ability to detect trimmed or altered cards is markedly better than my own. My grading is at least as consistent as theirs and takes into account my idiosyncratic preferences. And my ability to identify players and cards can't be any less accurate than theirs. So I guess I'm basically paying a premium for graded cards and paying to have cards graded so that I can make use of an online checklist and use PSA as an image hosting service. It very recently dawned on me that I could do that much more cheaply with Excel and a site like imagevent.com.

Now if I can just overcome inertia.

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Posted By: warshawlaw

Spencer: it is hard to say whether the SGC cards did not cross to PSA because they were "misgraded" or because they were in SGC holders. The only way to tell would be to crack them and send them in raw. I personally do not trust PSA to be objective as to another service's holders.

Prices: I agree with the poster who refuses to spend mega bucks on an 8 common. There is a set of 1948 Leaf boxing in Mastro that is selling for 10X the price of a normal nice set because it is the #1 registry set. That's a lot of extra value allocated to a registry position. The market obviously exists; to say otherwise is simply wrong, but I prefer my nice average 5.5 set that cost well under 2K

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Posted By: Frank Wakefield

Right on, Steve Yawitz!!!! Bust 'em out!

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Posted By: Steve

As always Yawie makes alot of sense. However, he did not state two obvious reasons why it is still beneficial to have cards graded. One would be the protection value the slab affords with the other being resale. It is just a plain fact in the internet age that if you want to sell these cards then graded is the way to go.

JMO

Steve

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Posted By: steve yawitz

...but I think the protection angle is overstated. I can't recall really mangling a card since the time in maybe '87 or so when I accidentally kneeled on an '85 Fleer Eric Davis rookie. Not saying it hasn't happened since that fateful day when I wrecked my big card show acquisition, but I'd be willing to bet that PSA has inflicted at least as much wear on my cards as I have in the six years that I've been submitting.

The value question is admittedly trickier for me. The nice thing about collecting PSA 1-4 prewar stuff - with the occasional splurging on a 5 - is that I feel most of the "value" is a function of the cardboard itself and not the plastic and label. If I had cracked out my '53 Parkhurst set before selling it, I would've taken a bath; If I were to crack out my modest T206 collection before selling it, I'm guessing that the realized prices would only be slightly lower than what they would be if I were to sell them graded - say the cost of the grading give or take a few bucks.

On my PSA 5's and on some of my E cards the disparity would probably be more, so if I do join Mr. Wakefield in the Slab Liberation Army, I might first sell those cards. I dunno yet. I feel like I'm at a crossroads of sorts and am still trying to figure out what makes the most sense.

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Posted By: Josh K.

Spencer,

I dont want to take shots and I dont want to continue the sgc vs. psa who is better debate, but I have got to say, that wagner is not a low end 3. Any card that actually has a piece of the card torn off is a 1 or 1.5 at best. Big difference in my book b/t a rounded corner and a missing corner. For example, as much as I would have liked a 20 on this card, I think the grade is correct:



Regardless, the wagner is still a nice card and you should be happy with it.

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Posted By: Spencer Wolff

Warsharlaw- I hear you, I send a lot of raw cards in as well, some grade what I thought, some don't. My point was in response to t206collectors statement of SGC being better than PSA, this being the case because he tries to cross PSA cards to SGC and they don't cross, they missgrade. So, your logic of PSA not crossing SGC out of spite, perhaps it works the same the other way, SGC doesn't cross PSA out of spite.
My purpose of writing initially, was to say that I have similar problems crossing SGC to PSA as he does crossing PSA to SGC. It works the same for both sides. That's it.
As for a card's corner being rounded or missing a piece, how does a cracker jack on such thin stock, have one perfectly rounded corner with three others being square? They break, they don't round perfectly, like that SGC 50/4 Jackson. I'm not alone among CJ collectors, that some rounded corners on '14 CJ's are altered. Pieces break off, they don't become perfectly rounded, unless someone rounds off the area where the piece broke off. And I think there is a difference between a piece missing in the border and one that extends into the the actual picture of the card. Just my opinion, not an argument, collecting cards is fun, and we all have different opinions, and it's good to share them.