New member intro

[begsu1013]

welcome mesquite! fairly new here as well. i mainly post to the post war forum as that is what i mainly collect as well...1951 - 79, but check in over here at the pre war forum every once in a while as there are some good threads here and the wealth of knowledge here is absolutely incredible...
freedom of speech is also more tolerated on this board vs some of the others.

not sure on the max size and limits of posting pics, but post away...

there's usually a monthly "pick ups" thread in both forums that is fun to peruse and certainly helps the wallet get a little lighter each month...

[trdcrdkid]

If you upload photos to the site to use in a post, there are size limits, which you can see with the "Manage Attachments" button at the bottom of the "Reply to Topic" page. I've found that using an external photo-hosting site (in my case Photobucket) allows for more flexibility and much higher size limits for photos.

[Mesquite]

Is there a particular format to follow (or special forum to post to) if I want pointers on determining the grade of a card?

For example, I've got nine of the 1970 Don Sutton #622 card, and I thought it might be instructive to understand how and why the grade varies on 9 versions of an otherwise identical card, especially relative to centering and degree of softness of the corners.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Mesquite

Is there a particular format to follow (or special forum to post to) if I want pointers on determining the grade of a card?

For example, I've got nine of the 1970 Don Sutton #622 card, and I thought it might be instructive to understand how and why the grade varies on 9 versions of an otherwise identical card, especially relative to centering and degree of softness of the corners.

Usually a jpg or gif is best to upload. For really large pictures they need to be hosted elsewhere as our limit is about 80k. There is something like an 8-10 picture per post limit but you can have multiple posts in one thread if need be. There are forums for most sports and different years of baseball cards. When you look at the upper part of each page there is a row of icons. The 4th from the left is the Postwar Cards and Watercooler Talk. That is where postwar baseball cards and other sports cards discussions go...Welcome to the fray.

http://www.net54baseball.com/forumdisplay.php?f=6


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[cardsfan73]

Welcome to the board & welcome back to a great hobby. Plenty of great folks here who are always willing to share their knowledge. Also plenty of great deals to be had on the BST forums!

Best wishes,
Scott

[swarmee]

Originally Posted by Mesquite

Is there a particular format to follow (or special forum to post to) if I want pointers on determining the grade of a card?

For example, I've got nine of the 1970 Don Sutton #622 card, and I thought it might be instructive to understand how and why the grade varies on 9 versions of an otherwise identical card, especially relative to centering and degree of softness of the corners.

http://www.psacard.com/Services/PSAGradingStandards/
Bookmark that link for a standard grading scale including centering guidelines.

PSA is more lenient on grading centering compared to BVG/BGS (Beckett Vintage Grading/Beckett Grading Service). BCCG is another Beckett service but their scale is like doubled, and intended to stuff cards into blaster boxes at Wal-mart, not to actually grade cards (i.e. a VG 3 card can be a BCCG 6 or so)- more of a scam than a grading scale. SGC is a co-leader for pre-1950 cards with PSA. BGS is the leader for modern cards, unless you're trying to complete registry sets of Hall of Famers like Nolan Ryan. I send all my stuff to PSA because their registries are more useful.

Here are my guidelines for raw cards: reasonably centered and no corner, edge wear is NM/MT. I try to never describe vintage cards as Mint despite how good they look.
One corner ding or surface dimple and you're in the EX/NM Near Mint realm.

Excellent are cards that have no rounding or creases, but maybe some corner or edge wear.

VG/EX can have rounding of corners, but no creases. Or a light crease, but minimal otherwise age effects.

VG can have rounding of corners and a single unobtrusive crease.

Most people also will tell you if the card has been written on as marked (MK), has a stain (ST), is miscut (MC), etc. Sometimes the MK is a vintage stamp that says which collection it came from, and therefore does not detract from the value. Same with Miscuts; in the very old series like T206, there may be a higher value for a miscut card compared to a similar grading card depending on the level of miscuttedness. ;-)

Heavily creased or otherwise damaged put you in the POOR-FAIR-GOOD realms.

[Enfuego]

Welcome aboard, glad you can join us...