Opinions for a new collector
PaulAlan0726
Posts: 3 ✭
I collected cards as a kid in the late 80's / early 90s. I packed everything up and have touched it until recently because my 11 year old son has taken an interest in the hobby. We unpacked my old stuff, started looking through it and it brought all those memories back to me and it's been a wonderful experience for both me and my son.
He loves basketball and football cards. I'd like to buy him graded cards because I see the value both from collecting and preservation perspectives.
We went to the National because we live right outside of Cleveland, so why not. I got a Bo Jackson rookie card I had since I was a kid signed, so that was a cool experience for both of us. But, in all honesty, I was a bit intimidated by the pricing of graded cards. Could have been because there were so many high dollar transactions happening around us, but it seemed like the sub 10 grade cards (in certain years / sports) seemed so cheap.
I wanted to ask how you all feel about cards graded less than 10.
So, for instance, I can get a 1988 Topps Jerry Rice grade 9 for $20, but a grade 10 is around $100 (using as a general example). Same with a lot of Jordans, I can get grade 9 cards all day for between 20 and $30.
I know my son just likes having them and looking through them (same as me as a kid), but is there any value to buying sub 10 grade cards?
Comments
Personally, I look at the quality of the card instead of the grade. Some cards graded 9 have better eye appeal than 10's and you can save yourself some serious cash too. Also, since your son likes them, I would stick to lower graded cards 8's or 7's to give to him to do as he pleases. They may not be worth much in the long run, but at his age it's all about quantity over quality. Good luck, welcome back to the hobby and enjoy this passion with your son now because kids have a way of growing up too quick.
If I were a modern card collector…I would only buy PSA-10 cards. Those grades have the best chance of appreciating in value.
Here's my opinion:
If you buy modern cards stick with PSA 10's. If you buy vintage cards - pre 1981 - buy PSA 9's from 1976-1980 and no lower than high end 8's for the years 1970-1975. For the 60's no lower than PSA 8's and before 1960 I would recommend no lower than high end 7's. Make sure that all your purchases are for cards with good/great centering. Stay away from anything off centered.
Hi, hello, how are ya?..........welcome
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Ralph
I’ll generally disagree with @bgr.
I also come at this from a different angle. In the early 2000s I built graded sets of 72T & 75T (both baseball) with every card in PSA8 or better. I sold both of those many years ago and generally stopped looking at cards for 15+ years. As I’m getting back into collecting now, one of the biggest things I’ve noticed is for the years I’m collecting (74-84 baseball) the grading standards have changed - a lot! Back when I was building those sets and submitting a decent amount, anything that came back less than an 8 was a failure. But now, I’m seeing a ton of cards in 7 or 7.5 holders that would have easily been 8s or 9s when I was really active. So as I’m building out my 74-84 sets I’ve had to realign what’s ’good enough’. As a general rule, the 74-79 sets are going to be NM+ with the later years NM/MT. And when I pick up graded examples, they tend to be high-end for my desired grade.
My advice is to buy the nicest example of a card you want for what you’re willing to spend.
Hiya Paul
First. Welcome to our forum buddy.
Have no opine about value since it's never been a focus for me.
I got into collecting 30 yrs ago because of my son - just like you.
So, I might have some general advice that may help since you're starting over in the collecting hobby.
Mike's Rules for collecting:
1 - establish a very narrow *FOCUS (collect what you like). this will keep you from trying to corner the market on anything and everything.
2 - establish a strict *BUDGET. This will keep you from waking up in the dark screaming into the night after having received your credit card bill!
3 - never, never, never, ever break rule #1 or 2.
Best of luck and if you have any questions on a product or item. Our forum is a good place to start. Me? I've broke every rule in the book over the years.
welcome back bruh!!! card collecting is mostly fun, but does come with some condition disappoints from time to time. i like searching for minty cards. for vintage i try to get the ones that have a shot at an psa 8. always get centered cards no matter what.
Welcome to the boards!
My advice is collect what you like. If it doesn't turn out to be worth more in the long run, you still have something you like.
The one thing I'll add, right now people are really only buying 10's on anything from 1980(?) to the present.
I pick up nicely centered 9's for next to nothing.
Yep...I've found that out myself, which is why I asked the question.
Most 9's seem nice enough to me
Before you disagree with me you have to state my opinion. I don’t have one on this topic so whatever is fine with me.
I wouldn’t ever tell anyone what or how to collect or maybe I would. I’ll have to wait and see.
Sorry @bgr - I meant I generally disagree with @Yankees70 ’s post
Apologies for not paying attention to detail.
sounds like some bad blood. LOL!!!
I agree with this guy!
When I got back in about 10 years ago I'd been out since about 1987. At first I just bought what I liked but as time went along I started buying better things that I WANTED.
Your goals will change after you fill some gaps. Just enjoy and stick to your budget. If you don't get what you want more than likely another will come later you can snag so don't sweat things too much.
What's your angle in wanting cards graded 10 when your son could simply develop a much larger assemblage by collecting raw cards without the holders? I'm not trying to discourage you from collecting holders, but it's not the gospel and investing or determining value in cards is a whole different beast. A nice raw collection has no leash attached to it.
Gobble.
@ElMagoStrikeZone
In my case, I'm building high-end raw sets from 1974-1984. 10 years ago it would wouldn't have been hard to build those sets as you suggest. But with the pricing explosion that came with the pandemic, most any star/HOFer in the condition I'm looking for got sent off for grading. And the market dynamics of unopened material from those years points to that stuff remaining unopened. So as I'm building my sets, I can expect many/most of the commons I'm looking for to be available but most of the stars/HOFers I'll probably have to buy graded examples.
I can't' imagine that dynamic would be any different for modern stuff. In fact, it may be even more pronounced. At least in the case of modern stuff, there may be more opportunities to build raw sets from cracking unopened stuff.
In my opinion, this is wholly card dependant. Unless you have a VERY large card budget, there are many cards from the 80s up to modern that will be very expensive in PSA 10. think 81 Montana, 86 Rice, The big 80s rookies in both star and 86 fleer, 93 sp jeter, 90 NNOF thomas, and most high end Brady rookies to name just a few.
9's are great, so are 8's in my opinion. It is all about budget.
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
I was in the same position when I reentered the hobby 6 years ago. As a kid I collected cards from mid/late 80s and early 90s. When I jumped back into collecting it wasn't hard to rebuild my childhood collection. After that I turned my focus to the chase cards that I could never get as a kid and that can still be challenging today. For me, that focus has been 1985 and 1986 Topps Tiffany (Clemens, McGwire,
Puckett, Bonds, etc.) , 1989 Bowman Tiffany (Griffey) and 1985 GPK (Adam Bomb, Nasty Nick). I would love 10s but am perfectly happy with nicely centered 9's and 8's. I also dabble a bit into other ways of feeling the hunt with 80's stuff, namely OPC in 9+ (e.g. 1987 Bonds, 1983 Gwynn, 1979 Ozzie Smith, etc.) and the relatively rare trifecta of superstar+rookie card+limited print variation which reared it's head with 1990 Frank Thomas NNOF, 1989 Randy Johnson Marlboro, and 1987 Bonds Opening Day. For these I am less picky about grade. At the end of the day I whole heartedly agree you should collect what you love and these little niches of 80's cards is where that is for me.
@craig44 Indeed. Not only that, ‘very expensive’ depends greatly on your budget and what you consider ‘good enough’.
An example - look at the 1980 Topps Rickey Henderson. PSA9s are in the $1300-$1700 range. 8s are around $250. And 7s at $100-$150. When I was submitting in early 2000s the lines between 7s, 8s, & 9s seemed a lot more defined. Nowadays I see so many 7s where I wonder why it’s not in a 8 or 9 holder. But even back then, the difference between a 9 and a 10 often seemed to come down to whether the grader was having a good day. With the graded cards I see now, those lines seem blurred even more. So with respect to graded cards, my advice is to buy the card, not the number on the holder.
So with respect to graded cards, my advice is to buy the card, not the number on the holder.
Sound advice. The way you worded that gives it some good perspective.