Sports Cards Mania

Traut

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Going in, know it is VERY difficult to pull a Gem 10 on cards from the era. I think there are like 800 true Gem 10s out of 20k graded Sandbergs. Graders are very particular on these key cards from the era and I've seen fresh pack pulled cards get 6-8s.
So many issues with cards being off center coupled with printing issues. I'm pretty sure Topps just turned on the presses to print as much as possible without much if any regard to quality.
 

Kenny F'ing Powers

posts way less than 18% useful shit
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Nov 17, 2010
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@Mooch You can do a pretty good job eyeballing a 9 or 10 based on some simple things.

- Centering. They even make some centering templates you can place on the card to gauge how close to center the card is.

- Corners and edges. If the corners/edges have any damage, it hurts the value. The white on the edges of the card below are the things that will knock down the grade.

94982

- Surface damage. Keep an eye on any scratches or imperfections on the surface, both front and back.

That's about it. Good luck!
 

Fishercat

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Basically every card you think will be a 10 with the naked eye is probably an 8 or 9.
And among paper, pre 2000s cards, maybe even worse. I've submitted fresh pack pulled chromium cards from the present day sets and gotten 8s and 9s all day which is to be expected, but as Traut noted, Topps in the 80s had no idea or inclination that people would ever grade cards formally and just sent the printers to go brrrrrrrrrrrrr.

@Mooch You can do a pretty good job eyeballing a 9 or 10 based on some simple things.

- Centering. They even make some centering templates you can place on the card to gauge how close to center the card is.

- Corners and edges. If the corners/edges have any damage, it hurts the value. The white on the edges of the card below are the things that will knock down the grade.

- Surface damage. Keep an eye on any scratches or imperfections on the surface, both front and back.

That's about it. Good luck!
I do agree with this though, some prep will go a long way. If Mooch is seriously going to pursue grading a bunch of these, a centering template, a loupe (for corners and edgewear as well as surface issues), and an intense/focused light will save a lot of heartache.
 

YTF

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An 11 year old pulled the Skenes 1st day patch card. Pirates have offered
30 years of season tickets behind home plate. Kid lives in LA, though.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/43507408/eleven-year-old-gets-1-1-card-pirates-ace-paul-skenes
Pretty cool. I wonder if Dunne's offer is just a really nice gesture toward the kid or if it's offered in exchange for the card. I'm hoping it's the former because that would be an awesome experience for the kid, especially if they could co-ordinate it to be a start vs the kid's favorite team.
 

Bergs

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Jul 22, 2005
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Pretty cool. I wonder if Dunne's offer is just a really nice gesture toward the kid or if it's offered in exchange for the card. I'm hoping it's the former because that would be an awesome experience for the kid, especially if they could co-ordinate it to be a start vs the kid's favorite team.
It's the bolded.
 

Fishercat

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The Dunne offer is more of an add on to the Pirates package The fan in me says it would be really cool for either the kid to keep it or the Pirates get it but selling one card will likely make this kids life way easier for many years to come so a sale does make a lot of sense
 

YTF

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I seriously question why the Pirates would want it. I get it's a one off, but we all know what a gamble these things are PLUS, they're a freaking MLB team. Maybe they think they can move it for charity? If they really want it the Bucs season tix aren't going to much for the kid. If he's a Dodgers fan work out a ticket package (not necessarily season Tix) for a number of years, some very cool memorabilia and some sort of monetary reward. Not saying he should take it, but if the Pirates want it they should show some flexibility and creativity.
 

Ale Xander

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Maybe not at 11, but at 13, I think you have to consider sharing a luxury suite with Olivia Dunne, even if just once, is at least as a good of an offer as season tickets for team that hasn’t won a title since the Carter administration (even if they play in the best baseball stadium in the country, if not world).
 

AlNipper49

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Basically every card you think will be a 10 with the naked eye is probably an 8 or 9.
Yeah. I got a 6 today and my son and I stared at the thing for a good five minutes trying to figure out why it wasn't a 10. There is only about a $80 difference between 6 and 10 (the Billy Ripken FuckFace card) so it's probably not worth cracking.
 

Kenny F'ing Powers

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Yeah. I got a 6 today and my son and I stared at the thing for a good five minutes trying to figure out why it wasn't a 10. There is only about a $80 difference between 6 and 10 (the Billy Ripken FuckFace card) so it's probably not worth cracking.
It's so fucking dumb. You could crack, resend, and end up with a 9 or a 10.

There are grading companies that use lazers/AI grading, but I don't think most buyers or sellers actually want it.
 

Fishercat

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I have 8s that I have NO idea how they're 8s and I have 9.5s (SGC) or 9s with a clear issue. Honestly, I don't buy into grading at all from a merit sense. A service like TAG, which does account for their work and give clear notes to their grades, is an absolute step forward but the sports card market has no meaningful interest at entertaining new grading companies and it's a real crappy "chicken and egg" thing. Most of the time you're going to grade a card to try and increase its value...the service that increases its value is also one of the least transparent companies out there...so you either choose a better or at least more accountable service and take a notable loss on any future value or...you give in. For me personally, the main value of a PSA is authenticity, so I'll only buy PSA or SGC for cards that have a lot of fakes or good reprints flying around (largely vintage) and pretty much never pay a huge premium for grade.

Like for instance, let's take two of one of the more "defining" 2020s Topps baseball cards, the 2022 Julio Rodriguez Update RC. Let's say you wanted a primo copy of this .

This is a PSA10 sold for $22+Shipping - PSA ID 72747973. If you look up this card, you get to this page which basically verifies...yep, it got a PSA10. To my naked eye, it looks a tiny bit OC but I can't really tell from the photo if that's just my eyes being funky. But that's a 2.5-3x price on a PSA9 (where the grader absolutely lost money on this). But that's what you get -the PSA 10 generally runs $25-$35.

There is a TAG10 on eBay that sold for $37 CAD - so similar price. TAG ID Y5992808 - will get you to this DIG Report which gives you the full grade (950/1000, TAG10), and then details on the front and back rating, centering, corner, surface, and edge /1000 scores, dimensions, locations of surface damage. You know where it ranks in TAG's database as well so you can differentiate between cards of similar grades.

There is no universe where as a buyer, you're going to have more confidence buying that PSA10 than the TAG10 grade wise - it's not to say it's a worse card or in worse condition, but the TAG info gives you a thorough review of what is or is not wrong with your card and PSA is...a number. Yet, a PSA9 Ohtani RC From the complete set sold for $70 and a TAG9 of that same rookie sold for...$17.50+Shipping. I am sure some of the issue is that you couldn't look up the TAG Cert Number (blurry photo) but that's the risk - you either settle for a non-transparent grade or you accept that if you do want to sell a card, you will not be maximizing your income off of the card.

My primary sports card breaker does SGC submissions and as much as I'd love to submit a bunch of things with them as I like their slabs and the reputation is good, SGC often just doesn't pull what PSA does outside of vintage. I might still submit some pure PC stuff to TAG because the clear slabs are sleek and I really do think they give a LOT more in terms of understanding your cards overall condition than PSA, but KFP is right in terms of market - if you're grading to potentially sell it's really difficult to justify anything but PSA and maybe SGC or CGC dependent on card age, type, market (like CGC for Pokemon is way different than CGC for like...Basketball, SGC for 2020s TCG is way different than 1960s MLB)

(The funny thing is TAG got a lot of posts on the baseballcards subreddit to the point where they got called out for people trying to covertly promote it, which I still think was veiled promotion, but it kind of hurt their reputation there despite being pretty legit)
 

Bigdogx

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Jul 21, 2020
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An 11 year old pulled the Skenes 1st day patch card. Pirates have offered
30 years of season tickets behind home plate. Kid lives in LA, though.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/43507408/eleven-year-old-gets-1-1-card-pirates-ace-paul-skenes
Heck why not a lifetime supply of beer to go with it because nothing says 11 year old like beer! Really what are the Pirates thinking with offering an 11 year old season tickets to a team 1,000+ miles away, idiots lol. Kid sell the damn thing before the guy has a down season or hurts himself and use the money for something important in your life!
 

Fishercat

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Double post, to back up the above on why I am very...dubious of grading and the backwardness of market valuations. Scottie B Cards (a solid baseball card Youtube follow) posted a grid of the four major graders (PSA, Beckett, SGC, and CGC) and their "Gem Rate" (% of cards getting a 10) by era of the set. Gems are PSA 10, SGC 10 and Pristine, Beckett 9.5+, and CGC 10, Pristine, and Perfect.

95126

You can see a TON of variation - some of this can be accounted for in the types of cards submitted to graders, some of this can be accounted for in terms of grader expertise, and the like, but to take it to an extreme, there is a 35% point gap in gem rate for TCG between Beckett and SGC in the same decade - it's very hard to believe the ultra modern TCG each are receiving will account for that.

And honestly, this wouldn't be a real issue if the market reflected this - but take into account that SGC gems TCG at a 46% rate and PSA at a 67% rate, and look at the below prices on a Pokemon 151 Charizard Special Illustration Rare (the chase card from the very popular Pokemon 151 set) - all sold this month or late December, last 5 sales with the gem rate at the end

PSA 10: $1050, 1175, 995, 850, 920, 1000 - 67%
BGS 9.5+: $745 $399, $400, $379, $384 - 81%
SGC 10: $425, $446, $425, $400, $408 - 46%
CGC 10 (not pristine) - $515, $494, $550, $499, $500 - 61%

This is why I side eye grading a ton - especially in the 10 v 9 v 8 area of it. It's great for authentication purposes, and I think it' good to set a vague waypoint to condition, but you'll never catch me paying PSA10 premiums on cards for this.

This should also be used when considering a grader if you think you have a gem.
 

AlNipper49

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It sucks for me because I've been relying so much on PSA's effective monopoly. I love collecting the cards that I grew up with, but there is an infinite supply of those. So I go for PSA10 versions of my favorite cards. It's "working" for me, but this opens my eyes to a risk that I hadn't fully considered.
 

Fishercat

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On the Pirates / Skenes / Patch thing, for some context

  • The Pirates offer has been out there since release. Recently in baseball cards huge distributors, players, and teams have been offering bounties for the biggest chase card in the product. Every company has a different motivation but the intention of the Pirates appears to be so they can keep and display the cards. I would presume it would be in a team museum / park display type item. So while it looks silly that it's out there for a pre-teen in California, that was before they knew who got the card. It's obviously a much better offer for someone with the time/werewithal to monetize the tickets, negotiate for themselves, or someone who has enough money to not worry about the financials.
  • The Rookie Debut Patch cards have been, by a large margin, the biggest "thing" done by Fanatics since acquiring Topps. They successfully got teams to have these on nearly every rookie's jersey for their debut game, they remove it, and put it on a card. It has caused Topps Chrome Update prices to EXPLODE and cards of complete no names have become four figure cards. There is a great video here of Cam Booser getting his debut patch card back after his family found the person who got the card and made a deal with them. Basically, the Rookie Debut Patch Auto is now up there with the Bowman Superfractor Auto as "the" most important card a player will have.The RDPA of "cup of coffee" guys can be 1k+ cards, if the player has any meaningful success that goes up quickly. If you get into the bigger prospects, there are five figure cards. Junior Caminero sold for 66k and there was a large bounty on Volpe last year
  • The price of Paul Skenes cards as astronomical. A PSA10 base auto of his Bowman 1st is a 1k+ card. His debut patch auto is almost certainly a six figure card.

For a pre-teen, the decision to monetize it is probably the only sane one - or to hold it as a collector as you're never hitting a card that good again, but the Pirates offer is definitely one of the strongest team/player offers for a card ever.
 

Bergs

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Jul 22, 2005
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Yeah. I got a 6 today and my son and I stared at the thing for a good five minutes trying to figure out why it wasn't a 10. There is only about a $80 difference between 6 and 10 (the Billy Ripken FuckFace card) so it's probably not worth cracking.
In general (as far as slabs go), I love PSA 8's. The price point is reasonable, and like you said, to the naked eye they look great. I have PSA 8's of the "big 4" Clemens rookies (Fleer Update/Topps/Donruss/Leaf) and the Topps Desert Shield.
 

Bigdogx

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Jul 21, 2020
328
On the Pirates / Skenes / Patch thing, for some context

  • The Pirates offer has been out there since release. Recently in baseball cards huge distributors, players, and teams have been offering bounties for the biggest chase card in the product. Every company has a different motivation but the intention of the Pirates appears to be so they can keep and display the cards. I would presume it would be in a team museum / park display type item. So while it looks silly that it's out there for a pre-teen in California, that was before they knew who got the card. It's obviously a much better offer for someone with the time/werewithal to monetize the tickets, negotiate for themselves, or someone who has enough money to not worry about the financials.
  • The Rookie Debut Patch cards have been, by a large margin, the biggest "thing" done by Fanatics since acquiring Topps. They successfully got teams to have these on nearly every rookie's jersey for their debut game, they remove it, and put it on a card. It has caused Topps Chrome Update prices to EXPLODE and cards of complete no names have become four figure cards. There is a great video here of Cam Booser getting his debut patch card back after his family found the person who got the card and made a deal with them. Basically, the Rookie Debut Patch Auto is now up there with the Bowman Superfractor Auto as "the" most important card a player will have.The RDPA of "cup of coffee" guys can be 1k+ cards, if the player has any meaningful success that goes up quickly. If you get into the bigger prospects, there are five figure cards. Junior Caminero sold for 66k and there was a large bounty on Volpe last year
  • The price of Paul Skenes cards as astronomical. A PSA10 base auto of his Bowman 1st is a 1k+ card. His debut patch auto is almost certainly a six figure card.

For a pre-teen, the decision to monetize it is probably the only sane one - or to hold it as a collector as you're never hitting a card that good again, but the Pirates offer is definitely one of the strongest team/player offers for a card ever.
Got it, thanks for the follow up as it makes much more sense now.
 

Mugsy's Jock

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Has there been any reporting on how the kid got the card? Simply bought a blaster and there it was (best possible solution)? His older brother is a breaker and stole it and put it aside, using his little brother as a cover (worst possible solution)? Something in between?
 

Bigdogx

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Jul 21, 2020
328
Maybe the kid got it for x-mas?

I just hope he gets a nice sum for it that would really help set up his entire life.
 

Oil Can Dan

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What would a 1990 Debut card of say Jose Offerman be worth today? I say that not because I hated Jose Offerman (I did), but because I still can't wrap my head around the values on almost all of these modern day cards. Jose Offerman actually had a pretty good career and I suspect most of todays players that are commanding crazy money for their rookie cards aren't going to match his career. Not picking on these debut cards either because I think they're pretty cool, but on what planet does it make sense for all of these unproven, very likely to fail players to command thousands of dollars on the open market for their cards? It can't be set builders, because there are so many 1/1's in these sets. I understand the lottery component but that only explains the very top-end of these prospects, doesn't it?

What possesses someone to spend thousands of dollars on a low-level, never gonna make it type of player? There are so many Rick Asadoorian types that went from mega-bucks to nothing out there that I don't understand who doesn't get this? I love the hobby, love thrill-of-the-chase, but I just don't understand. Maybe I'm just an old man yelling at clouds now...
 

Fishercat

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What would a 1990 Debut card of say Jose Offerman be worth today? I say that not because I hated Jose Offerman (I did), but because I still can't wrap my head around the values on almost all of these modern day cards. Jose Offerman actually had a pretty good career and I suspect most of todays players that are commanding crazy money for their rookie cards aren't going to match his career. Not picking on these debut cards either because I think they're pretty cool, but on what planet does it make sense for all of these unproven, very likely to fail players to command thousands of dollars on the open market for their cards? It can't be set builders, because there are so many 1/1's in these sets. I understand the lottery component but that only explains the very top-end of these prospects, doesn't it?

What possesses someone to spend thousands of dollars on a low-level, never gonna make it type of player? There are so many Rick Asadoorian types that went from mega-bucks to nothing out there that I don't understand who doesn't get this? I love the hobby, love thrill-of-the-chase, but I just don't understand. Maybe I'm just an old man yelling at clouds now...
Nah, I think you're at the very least a rational old man yelling at crowds.

I had a whole post drawn up but by and large I think 90% of it is the ability to say you own one of the very few truly unique and special cards in the hobby. Like, let's take Brett Sullivan. He is a 30ish year old utility man / catcher who debuted for the Padres in 2023, a pure AAAA/Org Depth guy. He doesn't have many other cards - he was in 2024 Topps Update and his rare cards are probably 30-50 to the right collector and a lot of those collectors are probably team set collectors. His Patch Auto sold earlier this month for $2,700. That could've been Brett Sullivan himself or someone who knows him who wants the card back. Or it could be someone who wants to be the owner of one of the few hundred debut patch auto cards on the planet - which has several truly interesting/cool properties (a traceable, unique patch linked to a player's debut, guaranteed game used and visible to a specific game, and there's no other card like it - no other parallels).

I consider it similar to the 1997-98 Skybox Precious Metal Gems cards. The "PMGs" were one of the earliest super low printed (/100 of each player, with the first /10 being green) parallels in sports cards. They started in the 90s as kind of an afterthought but as the hobby developed, more people came in, and the scarcity remained, people started to hoard them and made them VERY difficult to find. And there wasn't much else like a PMG. Now? Well a PSA 6.5 PMG of Sherman Douglas went for $900. A PSa 5 of Priest Lauderdale went for $1050. When you get to the real names or the greens you're getting into 5 figure range.

At some point, card collectors go from "I want something cool" or "I want something signed" to "I want someone very few other people can ever have" and they go crazy trying to find it. I think that's what this phenomenon is.
 

Oil Can Dan

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I appreciate that insight and explanation. I can understand if there's a personal connection to one of these rare cards of a player, but as far as just wanting something that very few other people can ever have, I don't get it. There's a million 1/1's out there if it were just that. I even have a few PSA 10 Rick Asadoorian's if anyone is interested...
 

Deathofthebambino

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Apr 12, 2005
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If folks think these new Debut Patch Autos are crazy, you all don't even want to know what the Panini National Treasures Rookie Patch Autos for NBA rookies each year...Or the Flawless and other Logoman cards.
 

Fishercat

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If folks think these new Debut Patch Autos are crazy, you all don't even want to know what the Panini National Treasures Rookie Patch Autos for NBA rookies each year...Or the Flawless and other Logoman cards.
WWE just got their first taste of the Flawless Gem and Logo cards recently and...yeah we're seeing some interesting prices for that market. Small potatoes compared to the NBA or but some big sticker shock.
 

Traut

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What possesses someone to spend thousands of dollars on a low-level, never gonna make it type of player? There are so many Rick Asadoorian types that went from mega-bucks to nothing out there that I don't understand who doesn't get this? I love the hobby, love thrill-of-the-chase, but I just don't understand. Maybe I'm just an old man yelling at clouds now...
It’s all just gambling. There are some very rich people in the world who don’t care about losing money. All they think is what if this guy turns into the next Tom Brady or something.

By and large if you were rational at all you wouldn’t “invest” in baseball cards at all.
 

AlNipper49

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What would a 1990 Debut card of say Jose Offerman be worth today? I say that not because I hated Jose Offerman (I did), but because I still can't wrap my head around the values on almost all of these modern day cards. Jose Offerman actually had a pretty good career and I suspect most of todays players that are commanding crazy money for their rookie cards aren't going to match his career. Not picking on these debut cards either because I think they're pretty cool, but on what planet does it make sense for all of these unproven, very likely to fail players to command thousands of dollars on the open market for their cards? It can't be set builders, because there are so many 1/1's in these sets. I understand the lottery component but that only explains the very top-end of these prospects, doesn't it?

What possesses someone to spend thousands of dollars on a low-level, never gonna make it type of player? There are so many Rick Asadoorian types that went from mega-bucks to nothing out there that I don't understand who doesn't get this? I love the hobby, love thrill-of-the-chase, but I just don't understand. Maybe I'm just an old man yelling at clouds now...
Kind of the same, but kind of opposite - regular old rookie cards don’t exist anymore. Of course there are bases from all the sets, but it feels like there are so many now. Do a search for Elly de la Cruz rookies on eBay and there are like 59 different cards listed.
 

AlNipper49

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I know you guys will say I told you so but I’m out of the breaking. A few nights ago I brought my youngest and a few of his friends to a card trade night. I was bored and I’ve had a rough few weeks so I bought maybe $500 worth of crap to rip. more than I wanted to spend but I wanted to get ‘something’.

I never plan on selling so worth isn’t a huge variable but I got MAYBE $50 worth of cards. Even that $50 would be tough to sell since it was mostly $2-$3 crap that got me to $50
 

NJ_Sox_Fan

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I'm kinda bummed I'm so jaded that the journal screams fake or at least manipulated for a story. Stupid hobby.
I think it’s completely faked. On top of that, to my knowledge, zero pics of the kid with the redemption, the instant PSA 10, using Fanatics auction to sell, etc. just all screams BS. But, I too am jaded.
 

NJ_Sox_Fan

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I know you guys will say I told you so but I’m out of the breaking. A few nights ago I brought my youngest and a few of his friends to a card trade night. I was bored and I’ve had a rough few weeks so I bought maybe $500 worth of crap to rip. more than I wanted to spend but I wanted to get ‘something’.

I never plan on selling so worth isn’t a huge variable but I got MAYBE $50 worth of cards. Even that $50 would be tough to sell since it was mostly $2-$3 crap that got me to $50
I feel your pain. I spent roughly $1800 the past 3 weeks on boxes (2 Topps Chrome, Archives, Bowman Chrome, Heritage, Triple Threads) and the nicest card I hit was that Carroll patch auto I posted earlier in the thread (and it’s not a big $ card). I sold the Holliday jersey card from TT for $40, and another insert of Bo/Mike Naylor for $10 so far, so a lonnnnnng way to go.
 

saintnick912

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Thanks for posting that '75 style Tiant, I have one coming today. I still need to go back and grab a few more of those '54 style Chrome from last year, it seems like the prices have cooled off somewhat on them. The '55 style this year (presumably) will be my next poison.
 

Fishercat

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The prices have gotten to the point where the only way to win is to hit a true A or S tier 1/1 in middle and higher tier products or get really lucky with a great name in the lower tier stuff - no real way around it. Like Bowman's Best is a deeply fun rip - 4 autos, great checklist, big names and big prospects, on card autos, all the stuff you want. But now it's like $425 a box and no mini-boxes so you can't split the product. Top 20 overall cards in the product (Elly De La Cruz Red Auto, Double and Triple auto superfractors, top rookie superfractors) are only 3-6x box price.

The "break even" card (card that is roughly the price of the box) is a thing like a Jackson Holliday Orange or Jackson Chohrio Gold auto - team color autos of top rookies. The "half the price" card (so about half the price of the box) is still something like a higher number top prospect auto, or a low numbered top prospect/rookie base, or something that is probably a Top 3-5 hit in any case. The odds are just too bad and the floor is so far from the price that it really doesn't follow logically to do it unless you're the one selling the stuff (or you're buying sealed and holding).
 
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bradcote

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It doesn't give you the same rush as ripping, but buying singles is the way to go.

I wanted a Pedroia card in his Portland Sea Dogs gear (I am from Maine) and I could have ripped a ton of 22 Pro Debut to find one. Instead, I saved a bunch of money by waiting and picking it up on eBay for $45.

Nowadays, buying boxes of cards is lighting your money on fire 99% of the time.

95414
 

NJ_Sox_Fan

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Oh buying singles is 1000% the way to go. But it’s just not nearly as fun.

Lately I’ve also been buying sealed factory sets of Topps flagship in duplicate. One to keep sealed, and one to open to see if I can hit any of the parallel sets or foilboards of the top RC’s.

Like this card

95418
 

NJ_Sox_Fan

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NJ
Thanks for posting that '75 style Tiant, I have one coming today. I still need to go back and grab a few more of those '54 style Chrome from last year, it seems like the prices have cooled off somewhat on them. The '55 style this year (presumably) will be my next poison.
I have every Casas auto, minus the superfractor. At least I was finally able to find out who has it but they were not moving it.
 

Fishercat

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Manchester, N.H.
For the more niche collector communities (either niche sports or athletes without huge followings or specific sets), a lot of people know each other just from being one of a group of people hunting the same cards

The Ashton Jeanty will do well, though he's hard to comp because of the seasons. His autos of any kind were going nuts in November and December but really cooled down post-season as they do when seasons end and Heisman voters make interesting decisions. Leaf also produces roughly a million 1/1s per set, so that doesn't mean as much to collectors as other ones do. On the bright side for you, Jeanty was REALLY tough to pull in the Bowman U products so people are still looking for autos and his market is solid.

So right now unsold he has a gold vinyl 1/1 for $650, and two other 1/1 autos between 400-450. Sold autos range between $100-$600 depending on timing with it being lower recently. I feel like if you put that up for auction it's probably 100-150, if you're patient and wait until draft time I could see someone grabbing it then for more as he won't have pro autos for a while. I don't think I'd run an auction now either way, just selling at the nadir, either put up a Sale/Best Offer link somewhere below the other listings but healthily above those 100-150 solds or just wait til April IMO
 

AlNipper49

Huge Member
Dope
SoSH Member
Apr 3, 2001
46,072
Mtigawi
I’ve really been thinking about this PSA10 discussion a bit.

Doing a little research into a few 10+ year old cards (to remove to chaos, to me at least, of all the variations etc in each set) I can get a PSA10 of a card for $1000 but the PSA 9 is $200. These aren’t one-offs, that’s the trend. It seems to me that the 9 is safer in the sense that if trust in PSA goes down it may have a lower floor. And potentially higher upside. On the other hand, if the player is the type of appreciate post-retirement then the PSA 10 would be the highest upside.

I don’t look at these as investments but it’s a fun question that my brain seems to have taking a liking to. Am I thinking about this the right way?