Crossroads on selling my collection since childhood

[larietrope]

Wrong picture

[stlcardsfan]

Great story and beautiful cards. If you are going to sell them, I would definitely get them graded.

[JollyElm]

Just want to make sure I'm reading this thread right. Whoever cleans the SUV in the first pic will get the cards in the second pic as payment, correct?? My soapy sponge is rarin' to go!!!!

Definitely grade them for maximum return. (Someone is inevitably going to suggest that you should think of placing them for sale as is in the B/S/T section, so there's that, too.)

[Kutcher55]

It is probably worth grading every card in that photo other than the 1961 Roger Maris. Great collection and good luck with the sale.

[Zach Wheat]

Very nice cards. Agree with poster above. It is nice that you still have your boyhood cards and they are in decent shape.

[Leon]

The question about grading or not is kind of simple, if you will get more for them graded, than what the grading costs, then do it. I agree with the others, get them graded if you are selling. Good luck, nice collection!!
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[raulus]

Maybe just to give you some thoughts about which grader to use, it seems like the primary factors should be cost, speed, and whether the stuff from that grader sells at a discount compared to slabs from other graders.

From what I'm seeing and based on your narrative, it mostly looks like midgrade 50s and 60s. Probably a lot of stuff in the 3-6 range, give or take?

As a practical matter, I would rule out Beckett, simply because their stuff sells at a significant discount when it comes to vintage. At present, I think you can probably also rule out CGC as well. While they might get there in the near future, the market doesn't seem to be quite ready to pay full price for stuff in their slabs.

That really leaves you with PSA or SGC. Given that they're now under the same corporate umbrella makes it fun, although they seem to still be operating very separately at the moment. PSA will take a long time or cost a lot of money (or both). If you submit to PSA at the bulk service level, your timeline is probably around 4 months, give or take, and it could be quite a bit longer, just depending on the randomness involved in when the grader decides to pick up your submission.

That leaves you with SGC. SGC seems like their turnaround times have grown a little lately, but still seem to be under a month door to door, which is pretty zippy by comparison. Their fees, while not crazy low, also seem to be rather reasonable by comparison. And while there's certainly some good data that their stuff sells at a discount at the top of the pop charts, for midgrade vintage stuff, the discount seems like it is usually small to miniscule. Assuming that you don't have forever to be patient on getting them graded, SGC seems like it could hit the sweet spot between the important factors at play here.

Good luck, and let us know how it goes.