Graded cards CGC or PSA -- updated with some pictures and plan to use PSA.
Old_Collector
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I have a few hundred older good quality 1950s-1964 and a few much older cards that I want to get graded and having an NGC Elite this year from doing a whole lot of NGC-Ancient slabs, I can do cards bulk for only 8.80 a card. While I would rather use PSA, that would cost a lot more. Are CGC graded cards generally accepted similarly at auction sites or are they not yet mainstream? I know very little about baseball cards but just got a bunch of them from a friend who passed last year to help out his widow and deal with selling them for her. Thanks!
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They are accepted, but sell for less or way less generally, and you don't usually see old stuff in them. For old stuff it's SGC or PSA. No clue what the value is of the stuff you want to slab, but figure you'd make up the $12 difference, assuming you plan to sell.
CGC is perceived as Fourth Rate. At first that may have been unfair as their initially graded strictly, but they brought it upon themselves. They went with short-sighted Omega Deal and Vending machine deals, both cash grabs, and now are thought of as being only a Junk Slabber by most.
Short term cash grabs at the expense of huge reputational hits that will lose more money over the long haul than they ever bring in sadly is common in large corporations. Reason is; Exec's simply seek to pad their next bonus then usually skedaddle to another large firm and then do same there. They only need the magic 18-24 months on the resume, what happens after they are gone is is of zero concern. Nothing new and the game never ends.
I'd sooner purchase BGS slabs over CGC.
IMHO if you seek to save $ grading your 1950-60s cards then use SGC (now PSA's sibling) at $12 a card - perhaps less in bulk.
It's the singer not the song - Peter Townshend (1972)
SGC is $15/card standard. Although they currently have a $12/card Basketball card special.
Thanks for the information, CGC does not sound like a great option, even though I was hoping to get this done cheap and quick for the cards that I have so far, as she doesn't want to lay out a lot of cash up front.
I have to think through a couple of options to finance the card grading then, either grade a couple of the best cards (he had a few good quality early Piedmont Walter Johnson and Ty Cobb cards that she is sending next by registered mail insured) and auction those off or auction off some of the signed game worn unforms that she also has. Since she has substantial authentication records, Heritage is willing to auction them and do the further autograph authentication process needed.
I appreciate all the information!
You don't have to grade them all at once.
You will regret sending to a low level grading service. PSA or SGC are your only good options. Many buyers refuse to buy from anyone else.
Don't get overwhelmed, send in a few of your best cards, make your sales, use that cash to fund further grading.
7.5 -- 1975 Nolan ryan sold for $150. I think it matters what the card is. CGC 9 1980 Paul molitor probably recives almost no attention. a 1980 noln ryan cgc 9 might. Might not go for $450, but it might go for $200. Just sayin.
Sorry it took a while but she sent the first few few dozen cards and here are some that I plan to send to PSA, I think that they all exceed the cost of grading, although I'm not knowledgeable on card grading none have any folds, most are not great centering, most corners look good other than one of the Mantle cards. Here are some pictures of a few of the ones that seem to have decent values in a grade of 5. Any particular advice on submitting, I plan to send about 20 of the better looking higher PSA 5 priced ones to start and when I get them back I'll have some to compare for grading others. Just used my cellphone, sorry about the quality.
Value bulk would be $24 each with PSA so unless there’s a special I think SGC would be the best bet. There are hundred dollar bills there when those cards are graded and sold.
That Rose rookie might be $1k to 1.5k.... If you join the PSA collectors club, the grading price drops down to $19 a card, so if you send in over 30 cards, you will be ahead. No real bangers, but as said previously, you will probably net $50-100 a card or so.
Yes, that is my plan -- I'm at 28 cards that seem worthy but have a few hundred more to go through and thousands coming. When I hit 30, I'll join and send the first batch. His widow is so slow, he died 2 years ago now and she is finally clearing things out since she spread his ashes in the Spring. She calls daily and wants to discuss all the signed stuff -- I tell her JUST SEND IT! She's into the signed uniforms balls and bats now (she says that the balls all look nice with good looking signatures and 3 are Mantle with nice signatures on the sweet spot so I'll be doing some authentication when I get those.
I know that they are real, she accompanied him to signings for decades and has personal stories of each that I don't have time for, but put her on speaker and let her ramble to reduce her stress of clearing it all out. He also got a lot of stuff from equipment managers with letters on team stationary attesting to the game that things were worn or used in for each piece. He also wrote many players back in the 70s sending them cards to sign and many sent them back with letters and other stuff like signed pictures and extra cards.
Not sure why he wanted me to have it all, probably figured that I would spend the time to deal with it properly and get it to true collectors like him, and take care of her fairly, although she's loaded and I manage her portfolio for free already.
Then this sounds like you're finally getting your commission!
You only need 20 cards to send in a bulk submission, the 30 is just the break-even on the collector's club. It's going to be about 3 months before you'll see them again.