Sports Cards Mania

Deathofthebambino

Drive Carefully
SoSH Member
Apr 12, 2005
41,949
Great card, but I can’t stand that they use stickers in cards like this. I mean, I understand why, but still…
These cards are really the only ones I don't mind, because there is almost no conceivable way they can pass that card around to all 10 different players in 10 different places to get on card signatures. At best, it would take them forever, at worst, the card would get terribly damaged in shipping all over the place. It's hard enough to just figure out the right way to open it, and I can't imagine Pedro or Manny or Boggs taking their time and carefully opening/signing and then preparing to ship them back out....
 

NJ_Sox_Fan

Member
SoSH Member
Jan 2, 2006
10,736
NJ
These cards are really the only ones I don't mind, because there is almost no conceivable way they can pass that card around to all 10 different players in 10 different places to get on card signatures. At best, it would take them forever, at worst, the card would get terribly damaged in shipping all over the place. It's hard enough to just figure out the right way to open it, and I can't imagine Pedro or Manny or Boggs taking their time and carefully opening/signing and then preparing to ship them back out....
Very true. Hard to tell in that video on my phone but if they’re done right, some sticker autos look nice, like the triple I have with Pedro, Nomar, Ortiz on it.
 

Bongorific

Thinks he’s clever
SoSH Member
Jul 16, 2005
8,434
Balboa Towers
I wouldn't even know where to begin to post some of my cards. I have millions, and I mean that literally. I do almost all of my selling from my office at work, so I always have a stash laying around on my desk, on counters, on the floors. This is the stuff that isn't on floors at the moment:

View attachment 60713View attachment 60714
My first sip of liquor was at the Oban distillery when I was about 16. Good choice.

Received my favorite piece of memorabilia when I graduated high school from a family friend that worked at New Era.
60820
 

Fishercat

Svelte and sexy!
SoSH Member
May 18, 2007
8,266
Manchester, N.H.
I gotta imagine the rise of the sticker auto is aligned with the rise of grading. The second people started getting upset their out of pack cards were 8 or 9s it became a lot harder to just send big blocks of cards around or do multi-signature cards safely. I mean, and laziness/too many products/etc. but I definitely get stickers on multi-auto products for sure.
It's one thing I wonder if it might get better with Fanatics. Probably false hope.

The negative degree weather let me snag the Sox on a pro debut break as I went Marcelo hunting. Only a chrome base for him sadly but got Casas color, Brainer and Binelas autos, and this one which I should logically sell but man I want him to work out...

Screenshot_20230204-221247-min.png
 

Kenny F'ing Powers

posts way less than 18% useful shit
SoSH Member
Nov 17, 2010
14,429
I gotta imagine the rise of the sticker auto is aligned with the rise of grading. The second people started getting upset their out of pack cards were 8 or 9s it became a lot harder to just send big blocks of cards around or do multi-signature cards safely. I mean, and laziness/too many products/etc. but I definitely get stickers on multi-auto products for sure.
It's one thing I wonder if it might get better with Fanatics. Probably false hope.

The negative degree weather let me snag the Sox on a pro debut break as I went Marcelo hunting. Only a chrome base for him sadly but got Casas color, Brainer and Binelas autos, and this one which I should logically sell but man I want him to work out...

View attachment 60844
Yeah, but all its lead to is 1/1 boxes for $2000.

The flood of bullshit autos and numbered cards has only upped the ceiling, not the floor.

"Wow! I got a /20 rookie auto card of X!!"

Cool. But it's not a /20. It's a /51 after the /1, /5, /10, /15, /20.

You either collect for the hobby or accept you're not better than the degenerates sitting in their cars with their scratch tickets.
 

Traut

lost his degree
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Jul 20, 2005
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Mama that is beautiful. I saw they're hitting eBay today for around $250 per. I should try to get in on these cool Topps Now cards for sure, but I don't even know how to do it. Is it super-limited, sells out lightning fast type of stuff??
These Topps Now autos were sold as autos. All of the autographed versions of this card /whatevers sold out in about 45 minutes of being posted.

I was waiting for this one the Monday after his HOF induction.
 

Fishercat

Svelte and sexy!
SoSH Member
May 18, 2007
8,266
Manchester, N.H.
Yeah, but all its lead to is 1/1 boxes for $2000.

The flood of bullshit autos and numbered cards has only upped the ceiling, not the floor.

"Wow! I got a /20 rookie auto card of X!!"

Cool. But it's not a /20. It's a /51 after the /1, /5, /10, /15, /20.

You either collect for the hobby or accept you're not better than the degenerates sitting in their cars with their scratch tickets.
I mean yeah but that’s what the hobby is now. Realistically parallel culture means unless there’s something special about the look that it’s just a higher number of autos in differing formats. And scratchies have better return to be fair.

I’m excited to get some Sox prospect autos regardless.
 

Traut

lost his degree
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Jul 20, 2005
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I mean yeah but that’s what the hobby is now. Realistically parallel culture means unless there’s something special about the look that it’s just a higher number of autos in differing formats. And scratchies have better return to be fair.

I’m excited to get some Sox prospect autos regardless.
It’s even worse as there’s now an endless amount of sets all with parallels.

How many /whatevers are there of Wander Franco in 2022 with the RC logo on them?

It is hard to imagine any of the cards of these hyped rookies doing anything other than losing value for this reason alone.

Factor in so many cards getting graded (which is almost a parallel itself) and being preserved at least in penny sleeves and top loaders and it is hard to make any sort of money sense of any of it.
 

Fishercat

Svelte and sexy!
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May 18, 2007
8,266
Manchester, N.H.
It’s even worse as there’s now an endless amount of sets all with parallels.

How many /whatevers are there of Wander Franco in 2022 with the RC logo on them?

It is hard to imagine any of the cards of these hyped rookies doing anything other than losing value for this reason alone.

Factor in so many cards getting graded (which is almost a parallel itself) and being preserved at least in penny sleeves and top loaders and it is hard to make any sort of money sense of any of it.
To that point I watched a YouTube video where a guy tried to determine how many Topps 1/1s existed for various players in their rookie cards. I think Trout was single digits, Betts was 12 or so, and Wander was over 100. I don't know if that even includes things like Topps Now and it excludes plates too. So I'm with you on the value proposition
 

Green (Tongued) Monster

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Jun 2, 2016
1,007
Hanover, PA
I assume there are some Yankee fans in this forum and I just came across a very nice Don Mattingly auto from 2022 Topps Clearly Authentic. I am having issues posting a photo, but it is the black parallel out of /75 like the one in the below link:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/115512483231?hash=item1ae5149d9f:g:Ua8AAOSwjL5jEXfp&amdata=enc:AQAHAAAAwErp2KNr/owcypqfssycSP+5eWvl+uFkVcoSOJUt8SM8aVeWXsDmqN4hobLGHcjw2bQn1rCtAcRgg0i2WaweVrh2KNdubSiUy+BmHY8chBkrJC9ZhGTIBD13qWqnVfE0woxjLUrXOALRJyKtafH++RUjanRAJO+7mCGX0FBxdMF65rmIYlS808RV0u5kQb7b+0E/f2aWs3DQQPnInxYx3KCYoBpVFYwuwD+xHkbADI+RWN85LOG6cNWClPC2v/IaxA==|tkp:Bk9SR7rYwIXFYQ

It's a beautiful card, but unfortunately I prefer it to be a red sox player. I will be listing on ebay in the near future, but if someone here is interested first, please PM me.
 

Carmine Hose

Member
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Aug 2, 2001
5,046
Dorchester, MA
You can ask for it just to be listed as authentic, or get a grade. If they give you a grade, it is deemed authentic. I think this auto got a 9 because of the ink level in the big "J' swoop. If you look closely, it's as though the pen didn't fully contact the card and leaves a light coloring in the middle.
 

Fishercat

Svelte and sexy!
SoSH Member
May 18, 2007
8,266
Manchester, N.H.
I'm still trying to find the best way to show it off, but the 1953 Reese finally came in so a quick teaser now that the set is complete of some of the bigger guns.

markup_1228457076 (2) (1) (1).jpg
 

JoePoulson

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Gold Supporter
SoSH Member
Feb 28, 2006
2,755
Orlando, FL
It's even more gorgeous in person:

61084

I'm going to have a game for us soon called "Speculate what PSA is Gonna Grade These Cards" as I have an order of about 11 or 12 I'm putting together, including that Ortiz.

We should have another break.
Let’s do it. Do we have a host?
I volunteer to host if no one else can/wants to do it. I'll start a new thread here in a bit to get us going...

Edit - started a new break thread - https://sonsofsamhorn.net/index.php?threads/spring-2023-sosh-baseball-card-break.38763/
 
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One Red Seat

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Oct 30, 2003
1,221
Guilderland, NY
Excuse my ignorance but I have some questions about grading....

How do you decide when to send a card to grade? Pick a value i.e. $200 and send anything that might meet that threshold?
What if you can't find a value for a card i.e. 2005 Babe Ruth Legendary Cuts game used bat 13/15....just hypothetical ;)
What is typical grading cost?
Who do you guys use? I assume there are bad actors out there to avoid?
Do you just send in a top loader case?
Grading companies don't provide any value correct? They just grade the card?

Thank you in advance
 

opes

Doctor Tongue
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Excuse my ignorance but I have some questions about grading....

How do you decide when to send a card to grade? Pick a value i.e. $200 and send anything that might meet that threshold?
What if you can't find a value for a card i.e. 2005 Babe Ruth Legendary Cuts game used bat 13/15....just hypothetical ;)
What is typical grading cost?
Who do you guys use? I assume there are bad actors out there to avoid?
Do you just send in a top loader case?
Grading companies don't provide any value correct? They just grade the card?

Thank you in advance
I dont know a ton about grading, but the last 2 years wait times were extremely long. Also alot depended on the player. Grading a rare Mickey mantle was something like 300 bucks compared to 25 to 50 for first year players. PSA had the slowest turn around iirc.
 

Fishercat

Svelte and sexy!
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May 18, 2007
8,266
Manchester, N.H.
Excuse my ignorance but I have some questions about grading....

How do you decide when to send a card to grade? Pick a value i.e. $200 and send anything that might meet that threshold?
What if you can't find a value for a card i.e. 2005 Babe Ruth Legendary Cuts game used bat 13/15....just hypothetical ;)
What is typical grading cost?
Who do you guys use? I assume there are bad actors out there to avoid?
Do you just send in a top loader case?
Grading companies don't provide any value correct? They just grade the card?

Thank you in advance
You can really send in anything you want but usually you want to at least justify it by sending in a card you would expect to grade well enough to add worth more than the cost to grade. Generally that means pricier cards and/or cards in pristine shape. Alternatively you can just do so to encapsulate / authenticate the card instead of judging it with a grade. All defensible.

If you can't find a value you can estimate. Searching for Ruth Bat Legendary Cuts I see a range of 150-300 on sold or so but none numbered to 15, so it could be more. Some graders charge more at higher declared costs and some don't. If you declare the card under $500 you are probably looking in the $25 range or so for the major graders. PSA will jack it up if you declare higher.

For baseball PSA, SGC, BGS or bust for me. There are a lot of graders but those have the best reputation. They have gotten faster and cheaper from the peak. Some will only go PSA. I don't see much of a reason to go elsewhere unless you like the look of another slab and don't plan to move it.

I think PSA likes card savers since they can cut them easily to get the card out but I think they'll take them most protective formats. Could be wrong there.

They don't provide value but a good grade and authentication can raise what a card goes for so kind of?
 

JoePoulson

Well-Known Member
Gold Supporter
SoSH Member
Feb 28, 2006
2,755
Orlando, FL
Excuse my ignorance but I have some questions about grading....

How do you decide when to send a card to grade? Pick a value i.e. $200 and send anything that might meet that threshold?
What if you can't find a value for a card i.e. 2005 Babe Ruth Legendary Cuts game used bat 13/15....just hypothetical ;)
What is typical grading cost?
Who do you guys use? I assume there are bad actors out there to avoid?
Do you just send in a top loader case?
Grading companies don't provide any value correct? They just grade the card?

Thank you in advance
More details for shipping to PSA:

PSA Shipping Guide

and pricing:

PSA Pricing

And they do tickets, photos, etc. I'm sending in an order as a combination of wanting some personal things graded out of curiosity as well as protected in the PSA slab, with a bit of speculation because why not?
 

Fishercat

Svelte and sexy!
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May 18, 2007
8,266
Manchester, N.H.
People are posting the odds for Topps S1 and unless hobby is way better than retail they are terrible. Like, 1 in 99 packs for gold terrible. Suggests a print run nearly 2.5x that of Series 1 2022 which was in itself very heavily produced

Edit: Hobby may be better at least for parallels but still on par with 2022 S1 if early reports are to be believe. 1:33 hobby, 1:4 jumbo for Gold /2023
 
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Bergs

funky and cold
SoSH Member
Jul 22, 2005
21,627
I have mentioned this project in here, and now that it's basically finished, I thought I'd share.

I picked up this box at a garage sale for $3 last summer. I made the 3 top "covers" out of scrap wood that looked about as aged as the box and some extra Globe-Wernicke bookshelf knobs. I was going for an abandoned antique look.

closed.JPG


I lined the insides with red felt and the box now houses every Topps Red Sox base card from 1960-1980.*** I have around 10 cards I want to upgrade, but otherwise these are 90% EX/MT - NM - NM/MT range (or better - except for some '62's, which are not only hideous, but hard to find/very expensive in great shape). I actually broke a couple dozen 6, 7, and 8s out of PSA & SCG slabs.

*** Except the 1963 Hi-Number Willie Stargell rookie, which unfortunately has Red Sox legend Jim Gosger on it as well. I'm not paying $500+ for Jim Gosger's fucking rookie card.

open.JPG
 
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One Red Seat

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Oct 30, 2003
1,221
Guilderland, NY
You can really send in anything you want but usually you want to at least justify it by sending in a card you would expect to grade well enough to add worth more than the cost to grade. Generally that means pricier cards and/or cards in pristine shape. Alternatively you can just do so to encapsulate / authenticate the card instead of judging it with a grade. All defensible.

If you can't find a value you can estimate. Searching for Ruth Bat Legendary Cuts I see a range of 150-300 on sold or so but none numbered to 15, so it could be more. Some graders charge more at higher declared costs and some don't. If you declare the card under $500 you are probably looking in the $25 range or so for the major graders. PSA will jack it up if you declare higher.

For baseball PSA, SGC, BGS or bust for me. There are a lot of graders but those have the best reputation. They have gotten faster and cheaper from the peak. Some will only go PSA. I don't see much of a reason to go elsewhere unless you like the look of another slab and don't plan to move it.

I think PSA likes card savers since they can cut them easily to get the card out but I think they'll take them most protective formats. Could be wrong there.

They don't provide value but a good grade and authentication can raise what a card goes for so kind of?

Thanks everybody for the answers and great info
 

Fishercat

Svelte and sexy!
SoSH Member
May 18, 2007
8,266
Manchester, N.H.
I have mentioned this project in here, and now that it's basically finished, I thought I'd share.

I picked up this box at a garage sale for $3 last summer. I made the 3 top "covers" out of scrap wood that looked about as aged as the box and some extra Globe-Wernicke bookshelf knobs. I was going for an abandoned antique look.

View attachment 61187


I lined the insides with red felt and the box now houses every Topps Red Sox base card from 1960-1980.*** I have around 10 cards I want to upgrade, but otherwise these are 90% EX/MT - NM - NM/MT range (or better). I actually broke a couple dozen 6, 7, and 8s out of PSA & SCG slabs.

*** Except the 1963 Hi-Number Willie Stargell rookie, which unfortunately has Red Sox legend Jim Gosger on it as well. I'm not paying $500+ for Jim Gosger's fucking rookie card.

View attachment 61188
Thats a sick collection idea. I love it.
 

Traut

lost his degree
Lifetime Member
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Jul 20, 2005
12,750
My Desk
I'm losing on a Casas atm look like. 600+ is too high for my blood. Jordan and Mayer on on the way though.
The rookie market is one of the most bananas markets on earth.

I think Triston Casas will be a good player. He may even make an all star team or two. Or he may not.

There will be many Casas rookie parallels, numbered cards, and short prints this year. Probably thousands of them signed.

The pro is he plays for the Sox which should add value if he’s good.

Will he be as good as say Paul Goldschmidt?

Whose Beckett 9.5 2011 Bowman First Auto just sold on Ebay for $299?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/134432257658?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=r0e3BGvES9O&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=jwZCXVRQQEu&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

And even if he has a very good rookie season it’s likely his cards will sell for half of what they are selling for now in a year.
 

Fishercat

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May 18, 2007
8,266
Manchester, N.H.
To expand on the 2023 Topps Odds, someone has posted odds for Jumbo, Hobby, and Retail.

Long story short is unless you're specifically a rainbow foil collector or just want to rip at the cheapest price point, go jumbo. I compared six cards odds wise. I used Blowout's Price Per Pack for Hobby and Jumbo and a standard $25 blaster price for 8 packs for retail (if a blaster is 7 packs, obviously that makes it worse). Basically, my pack prices worked out to $16.50 for a hobby pack ($165 a box, 10 packs in a box), $3.75 for Hobby (90/24), and $3.125 for retail (25/8). If you buy solo packs of course expect the premium, your price may vary, etc. I fully expect retail blasters of this to hit clearance level pricing FWIW.

The priced odds of a rainbow foil - an unnumbered parallel, is roughly the same cost wise across products - about $31-$37 to pull. Obviously not worth that much as a card but the main point is at 1/10 at retail and hobby, even at 1/2 in jumbo, it evens out price wise. What that tells me is that rainbow foil, along with any non hard limited card, is likely to be at much higher production runs. Not shocking but enough.

The gold (/2023) parallel is where the gap emerges. The odds are 1:4 in a jumbo pack, so you're spending about $66 (4 packs at $16.50 a pack) to get one. The odds are 1:33 in a hobby pack, so you're spending about $123.75 (a hobby box and change). The odds are 1:99 in a retail pack so you're spending $309 in retail to get one gold.

This is continuous across other hard limited cards - I did Vintage Stock as well which I believe is /100. It's $1155 in Jumbo, $2610 in Hobby, and $6521 in Retail (I pulled two of these - one in a blaster and one in a regular Hobby box from Update just for reference and didn't spend nearly that much)

The new Golden Mirror Short Prints? $759 in Jumbo, $1702 in hobby, and $4250 in retail.

Interestingly Topps is also varying up the degree of variation. For instance, the gap between product types for both Vintage Stock and Golden Mirror is pretty similar betwen the product types - about 2.25x more expensive to find in Hobby than Jumbo, about 5.6x more expensive to find in Retail than Jumbo, about 2.5x more expensive to find in Retail than Hobby. However, gold while still being a better bet in Jumbo, isn't as much of a better bet - the 2.5x gap between retail and hobby is there but the Jumbo difference is smaller. I'd have to go through odds for everything to really tell if that's consistent.

I also chose the 1988 Relics and Autos because those can be things people look for - first it's Hobby/Jumbo exclusive. The only relic/autos I saw on Blaster Odds are the commemorative patch cards, the rare parallels with autographs, and the base autograph (which is nigh impossible). Not shockingly, despite having three "hits" in a Jumbo and one "hit in a Hobby'...it's STILL more likely to hit a 1988 relic in Hobby, but more likely to hit a 1988 auto in Jumbo (even if it's still 1 in 4 boxes give or take).

Edit: In short - for easier hits and non numbered inserts retail is likely your best bet - things like One-Two Punch Base, All Aces base, etc. - it's a better cost investment. For instance, odds to hit an All Aces are the same between retail and hobby but retail packs are cheaper. It's 4x easier to hit in Jumbo but the packs are 5x more expensive. For anything else with any enforced rarity it's fairly consistent that Jumbo is by far your best ripping bet - you'll need to spend about 5.5x as much on retail as you would a Jumbo to get a numbered parallel or one of the most difficult inserts (like Heavy Lumber). You'll need to spend about 2.25x as much on hobby as you would a jumbo (with some variance) for the same. Retail is seven packs - just makes it worse. That shifts the retail spend on harder inserts and numbered cards closed to 6.5x in most cases and mitigates some of the easier card advantages. Even if retail blasters hit 50% clearance, which to me feels quite possible, it's still a bad bet unless jumbos double...which feels a bit more possible than I thought it was but won't be due to the insane print run on the product - even if it's not as far off from S1 22 as I thought...you can still get S1 22 for cheap.

Edit2: I ended up buying a few Ginter autos I had been buying instead of going for a hobby box. That's my stance on 2023 Topps. If I'm gonna rip it's gonna be jumbo whether it's a break or an outright purchase. Topps is definitely fussing with odds and distribution to confuse print run values. It seems Hobby is up about 1.5x but they shifted a lot of the parallels from retail to hobby to offset this in that sense, and they absolutely hard shifted a ton of those hits to jumbo as well. Don't buy retail until that stuff is on mega clearance.
 
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bradcote

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 27, 2005
3,150
Keepin' it real in Maine
Has anyone bought a card that uses eBay’s Authentication Service? What do you think of it? I am waiting for the card to go through it and it tacked on an extra week of delivery time.
 

JoePoulson

Well-Known Member
Gold Supporter
SoSH Member
Feb 28, 2006
2,755
Orlando, FL
I have an embarrassingly tall stack of eBay authentication boxes sitting at home. Been going bonkers over the last several months, and have even sent a few things through it. I love the service but worry about the cost once it's no longer free.
 

Fishercat

Svelte and sexy!
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May 18, 2007
8,266
Manchester, N.H.
Has anyone bought a card that uses eBay’s Authentication Service? What do you think of it? I am waiting for the card to go through it and it tacked on an extra week of delivery time.
I've bought three. My quick pros/cons

Pros
  • It adds a real layer of authenticity protection for ungraded cards. They're using real grading companies to back this up and there's a track record. There's plenty of cards that meet the price level for the service that aren't in slabs at this point in time. Only one of my three was and it was a VERY hard card to fake (but an easy one to quasi replicate), but if I were buying a raw, vintage card of notable value I'd aim to get the authentication service as part of the bid if it were close.
  • It was a small layer of authenticity protection for graded cards where slabs could be faked. Like if I were buying an MJ Rookie or a rare Pokemon card I'd be inclined to want the slab to go through it too to double check. Very nice for highly faked cards. Like, I could see someone using a fake slab and one of the really good '53 Mantle reprints to try and pull a fast one and have it work. This should mitigate that issue.
  • The shipping from authenticator to home is really secure. Strong boxes, card is in a fairly respectable holder, two of them were signature required which for a card of distinct value is appreciated
  • Right now, it's free. No idea how long it'll last but on raw cards it functionally serves as a free grading company check, that's a nice value add.
Cons
  • Ship time and potential for lost packages - to your point, it'll add on at least a week from door to door. My '53 Mantle and Reese were graded and it was still added on time. It also adds a leg where something could get lost in the mail. I'd worry about that a bit as a seller more than a buyer but it's a real concern.
  • The "authentication" is a sticker on the plastic surrounding the card - so if you want to bust out the card and Onetouch it (for instance), your verification is largely null and void. No real good way around this outside of maybe issuing a certificate with it but you could still flip that around and mess with it.

Overall I like it a lot and I'd struggle to spend on a huge raw card without it.
 

bradcote

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 27, 2005
3,150
Keepin' it real in Maine
I've bought three. My quick pros/cons

Pros
  • It adds a real layer of authenticity protection for ungraded cards. They're using real grading companies to back this up and there's a track record. There's plenty of cards that meet the price level for the service that aren't in slabs at this point in time. Only one of my three was and it was a VERY hard card to fake (but an easy one to quasi replicate), but if I were buying a raw, vintage card of notable value I'd aim to get the authentication service as part of the bid if it were close.
  • It was a small layer of authenticity protection for graded cards where slabs could be faked. Like if I were buying an MJ Rookie or a rare Pokemon card I'd be inclined to want the slab to go through it too to double check. Very nice for highly faked cards. Like, I could see someone using a fake slab and one of the really good '53 Mantle reprints to try and pull a fast one and have it work. This should mitigate that issue.
  • The shipping from authenticator to home is really secure. Strong boxes, card is in a fairly respectable holder, two of them were signature required which for a card of distinct value is appreciated
  • Right now, it's free. No idea how long it'll last but on raw cards it functionally serves as a free grading company check, that's a nice value add.
Cons
  • Ship time and potential for lost packages - to your point, it'll add on at least a week from door to door. My '53 Mantle and Reese were graded and it was still added on time. It also adds a leg where something could get lost in the mail. I'd worry about that a bit as a seller more than a buyer but it's a real concern.
  • The "authentication" is a sticker on the plastic surrounding the card - so if you want to bust out the card and Onetouch it (for instance), your verification is largely null and void. No real good way around this outside of maybe issuing a certificate with it but you could still flip that around and mess with it.

Overall I like it a lot and I'd struggle to spend on a huge raw card without it.
Fair enough...thank you for the information! I bought a mid-range (PSA 5) 1980 Larry Bird/Magic Johnson/Dr. J, so having the extra verification can't be a bad thing. :)