Condition / grading obsession in the hobby

If you bought the star cards like Ruth, Young, Dimaggio, Williams, Mantle and etc back in the 70's and 80's you were lucky getting in on the ground floor before the hype.

[brian1961]

Originally Posted by rgpete

If you bought the star cards like Ruth, Young, Dimaggio, Williams, Mantle and etc back in the 70's and 80's you were lucky getting in on the ground floor before the hype.

Quite.

I think it should be mentioned that the hobby grew exponentially in the early 70s at the rate of almost year by year. It was in the mid-70s when John Q. Public was finally made aware of the increasing value of baseball cards through television reports and various feature articles in newspaper and magazines.

Result?

The public began to dig in their cellars, attics, trunks, closets, garages, and those of their parents and grandparents. Once in a great while white whales would be found and brought to the hobby via shows, answers to advertisements placed in newspapers. Certain dealers, especially Alan "Mr. Mint" Rosen, were spending a fortune in advertising just to get the attention of hobby people and particularly any of those fortunate few who found those white whales. As I am certain you already know this, among those who phoned Mr. Mint was a guy in the mid-1980s, whose Dad was a rep for a sporting goods distributor. He had this one sealed case left over from the early 50s....the find of a case of 1952 Topps High Numbers and semi-highs. From which eventually came the 10 PSA graded MINT and GEM MINT 1952 Topps Mickey Mantles, as well as a the rare opportunity to purchase ultra high-grade semi-highs and the intensely desirable other high numbers. I dearly wish I had ... oh never mind.

It was indeed a ground floor boom time.

Collecting hobbies virtually always have items that are particularly prized, and valued accordingly if they have been certified/authenticated and graded Near Mint/ Mint or better.

Interesting topic. ---Brian Powell

[Exhibitman]

Lots of factors at work:

I tend to like to get cards in the condition I had them when I was a kid. For me, that means the 1970s are pack fresh, the late 1960s look pretty good, say ex or better, and earlier cards are rougher. I am very happy with vg cards from the 1950s golden era of Topps, for example. That said, I will pick up better condition cards when the price is right.

As for slabbing, it is imperative for mail order and eBay. In person, like at the National, I can take the time to sift through and study the cards to see whether they meet my criteria. By mail or on eBay, not so much. A wrinkle here, a bumped corner there, etc. Dealers' standards varied so widely that a PSA or SGC or BVG is very useful.

So, to go back to the OP, I think TPGs have a place, but I have always found the registry competition over supposedly high grade cards to be incomprehensible. I see basically no difference between a 9 and a 10, and many 8s are just as nice. To each his own, except that the price inflation from deep pocketed collectors fighting over the 9-10 cards tends to push collectors down to lesser grades for their collections, which in turn pushes up prices for lesser grade cards. We're seeing that right now with Mantle and Aaron cards.

[PowderedH2O]

Been there - done that. I was on the registry and I was trying like heck to get high on the rankings in lots of sets. I collect baseball, basketball, and football. I was a few cards away from a 1954 Bowman football set in all 8's or higher, when I bought a lot of about 13 cards on ebay from a seller hoping to get one of the ones I needed to send off to PSA. I paid $65 for the lot and it included George Blanda and a few other names. The cards were probably in the 4-6 range.

Over the next few weeks I started thinking about the thousands of dollars I had in this one set and the $65 I spent picking up some great looking Vg-Ex to Ex Mint cards. I sold that Bowman set, and I've gradually sold most of my graded stuff. I realize that Vg-Ex to Ex on 1950's cards is just fine for me.

As far as being disappointed, I think it goes about 50/50. I get cards that are described as Ex-Mint that are clearly VG at best. At other times, I get cards that are described as Vg-Ex that I can't find a single flaw. The best is when cards have no grades, but the seller just says "see photos". Two weeks ago I took a chance and for $115 from one seller with crappy photos I got a 1957 Aaron, a 1960 Aaron, a 1961 Yaz, a 1961 Marichal rookie, and a 1961 Santo rookie. The Aaron was probably Vg-Ex, and the other four were Ex-Mint to Near Mint. I couldn't have bought those cards graded for anywhere near $115. So, into my raw sets they go!

So glad that I am cured from the registry!

Sam