is ebay killing high grade 50's-60's market?

[mintacular]

The cat is out of the bag on all those rare issues you mentioned. So the $ you pay for them will reflect that. I still say for the $ you put in, high grade RCs w/eye appeal for post-war stars is the way to go over random/obscure and overpriced regional issues that look a high-schooler took the picture...

[Exhibitman]

You might have missed a bit of my point about the sales viability of prewar versus postwar. I don't want to/cannot (because there are no shows left ibn SoCal) set up and sit around a mall show all weekend trying to sell cards. If I need to liquidate I need to be able to move, not work a fulltime retail job. I know from past experience that I can literally pick up the phone and arrange large sales at very strong prices for rare prewar cards. I could not do the same for my postwar higher grade stuff unless I was willing to take a wholesale price from a dealer. If the goal is to maximize returns, taking a dealer wholesale offer when you sell or being forced to incur the costs of sitting shows is not the way to do it.

Another issue as far as rthe hypothesis about selling at shows, the point contradicts the premise of much of the thread--if Ebay is an abbatoir for sellers of these cards, why would show attendees pony up substantially more for the same cards that they can get on Ebay? I saw lots and lots of high grade postwar sitting in showcases at empty tables at the National. Didn't look like a great investment to me for the sellers.

[smtjoy]

The great thing about collecting vs investing is there is no bad moves in collecting, not true with investing.

I have two 1955 Topps Clemente Rookies (PSA 6 and 7) I am break even on the 7 after a year and a half, I got the 6 a couple years ago and if I compare what I paid vs the VCP average today I am in the hole over 20%, crappy investment but an awesome card of my favorite player and happy just to own a card I always wanted.

[Rich Klein]

Is that one of the major issues with SMR is that in large parts they are "beholden" to people who advertise with them; instead of tracking actual sales.

if they ever really used VCP (or Card Pricer) properly and did a little more work on pricing; you would probably find these things

1) Cards only priced in conditions they exist. This might have been fixed in recent years; however; this used to be a real problem with the SMR.

2) Prices lowered on those post-war sets.

3) Meanwhile; priced raised on legit difficult pre-war (and other tough modern sets) sets.

4) And on a customer service complaint; I'm one of those rare people who PAY for a subscription to SMR and I've done that a couple of times and I have NEVER gotten a renewal notice. I don't know about you; but throwing away the chance for money by sending a simple renewal notices if just not good common sense.

4A) Because of issue #4 (and I stress this is personal); AND the membership fee to PSA -- why would I ever want to send cards into PSA. I can't have faith in their customer service because they don't know how to run a magazine AND why should I pay $99 for the priveledge of sending cards into PSA. Personally; I would much prefer a price fixe of sub costing X and cards being sent in costing Y (with whatever special deals do come up). I don't want to be a member of a "club"; I just want cards graded!

Regards
Rich

[GasHouseGang]

Rich,
I agree with you that they have prices on some cards that according to their own population report, don't even exist. How can they assign a price? Guess, magic 8 ball?

[hcv123]

So how about this Irony - imo PSA has a LOT of issues - some of which have been raised here. Consistency in grading, consistency in establishing their set registry among others and yet.......of all the grading companies, cards in PSA holders seem to demand more money than in any other company holder??
IMO Rich hit a critical nail on the head - how can SMR be taken seriously when they offer "prices" essentially for cards that do not exist in grade!? A bit presumptious and egotistical if you ask me! I would gladly pay DOUBLE SMR for some of the food and test issues they have listed in psa 8 and 9 - (of course the highest graded of most of them is a 5 or 6). Any takers

[ebrehm]

Here is what PSA states regarding valuation of cards that have not yet been graded; I assume the same logic would carry over to cards that do not exist in particular grades:

Cards Not Yet Graded or Few Known

In cases where a card has not yet been graded or in cases where a card is extremely scarce and rarely comes up for sale, we do our best to give conservative estimates for those cards. We try to compare that card to other comparable rarities in order to come up with a price but our stance at SMR is that a card is worth what someone is willing to pay so we try to avoid speculating too much and focus on actual sales. If you know of a rarity that has sold privately and it can be verified, let us know. We can’t make changes if we don’t have the pertinent information.

[sportscardtheory]

Also take into consideration that more and more of the cards from that era are being slabbed, thus creating higher supply and less demand.