What is your latest and greatest raw find?

The53Kid

And what was the outcome after getting it graded?

I thought this would be an interesting thread. And I'll start us off. At the last Ft. Washington show I found a dealer with a large supply of raw Play Ball cards. I thumbed through them all, only to come up with one gem! The result, a PSA 8. Here's a view of the card.

1941PBHemsley

Pure satisfaction when you find a hidden gem.

Wabittwax

Mine wasn't that old but it was a 1975 Topps complete set from Ebay. I took a chance on it and it's paying off pretty nice. So far I have graded 70 of about 275 gradable cards from the set. Invoice number is 8030404. I got some low pop PSA 9's from it so far.

FB

I'd have to go with a complete 72 Topps set that I won on eBay in December for $2000. After the results came back, I wound up with 87 PSA 9's (including Killebrew, McCovey, Perry, Palmer and Wilhelm), 312 PSA 8's and about 40 PSA 7's. I sold off the leftover raw cards for $700 on eBay and had the winner email saying how happy he was and that they were much nicer than he expected!!

I was able to upgrade 12 cards in my own set and I made enough profit to pick up a 71 set with most of the stars graded 8!

mikeschmidt

I have a number of 1955 Bowmans that I will be sending in to PSA. Many will come back PSA 8. I still hope for a PSA 9 once in a while (never had one from a raw submission, but have on crossovers broken out...).

That 1941 PB is a truly nice card. Congrats!

LuxuryWines

1964 Topps Giant Dick Stuart that I bought raw for $2.50 and came back a PSA 9...

1420sports

Not a valuble card (who knows) but a very cool one - 1976 Sugar Daddy Pete Rose. It is about the size of a T206, and should grade a PSA 8 or 9.

tschaef

If you have read the 71 Clemente Kellogg's thread mine is obvious. I bought it raw for around $90 and it graded a ten. The debate is still on about its worth. The consensus says 2-3k.

acowa

Found a lot of 1961 Topps World Series cards on Teletrade. They were described as NM/MT but most of the cards were NM except for the two toughest cards to find in PSA 8. The lot went cheap and the 306 and 310 came back 8's.

Regards,


Alan

Mefer

Not a major, major find, but about a couple of months ago, I went to one of my local card shops and discovered the owner picked up a bunch of raw cards from the 50s to 70s and that he was "blowing" the cards out 1/3 of book. After picking through, I found 1972 Topps IA cards of Seaver, Fuentes (2) and Gaston. I paid a grand total of $6.00 for these four cards. I figured all had at least shots at getting nines. The results? 3 9s and an 8 (the Seaver). I kept the Seaver and sold the 9s and not bad prices.

interchanges

I know of a guy that I sold (of all things) an Ebbets field postcard to off ebay. Then we found out we live near each other. So we met at Friday's to make the deal. ($15.00, WOW) (I spent it while I was there)
Then he tells me he used to buy a ton of cards, then got out of it for about ten years, which coincidentally was right when the PSA boom took off.

I told him of other cards I had for sale, he was interested, so we met up again about a week later. He brought stuff I told him I liked. (pre-war), just to look at.
I couldn't believe what he brought. high grade 38 Goudeys, 41 Playballs, and a few killer Delongs that he said he bought from Superior (before they were PSA dealers, back in the Tim Craven days).
He has a Lefty Grove that appears to be a nine!!!
I didn't know what to do! I wanted the Delongs bad! I offered trades of all kinds, even offered $3000.00 for the Grove. He didn't bite.
I gave him the scoop on PSA graded cards, and by now, he knows.
We met up one more time, and he brought all his T206's. More quality raw cards the likes of which I've never seen.
I email him about every couple months, offering to buy, but he doesn't bite.

So when you think there's not much more good raw stuff out there, you're wrong.
I know I didn't buy these cards, I just thought I'd share the story. I'm dying just to know what they would get!!

Treetop

any card i have paid beckett (raw) price for and it comes back a PSA 9

liffeystynx

Because I don't have direct access to any card shops/shows, I really envy the notion of physically rooting through tons of cards only to find the odd gem. However even on eBay, the virtual find is still possible.

I've got about 30 cards to go to complete my 1967 Topps Baseball set and while on this quest, I won a #467 Jim O'Toole for $3.00. When the card arrived I immediately saw that it was a beauty and even though it's only a semi-high common (Beckett high $6) I sent it off to PSA. When it came back it was a 9 (my first) with a current SMR of $60 and a pop of 4 with none higher.

Needless to say, it is my pride and joy even if it isn't the T206 Wagner.

gemint

Maybe some low pop '69 commons pending the outcome of my submission (fingers crossed).

Last year I bought some cards from a local dealer who I had bought many high grade early 70s sets from. I asked him if he had any individual stars left over. I ended up buying about $200 worth of cards at half Beckett raw prices. The grading results: 1973 PSA 9 Willie Mays ($20 purchase!), 1973 Tom Seaver PSA 9, 1973 Lou Brock PSA 9, 1973 Roberto Clemente PSA 8, 1974 Hank Aaron PSA 8, 1975 Gary Carter RC PSA 8, 1969 Ernie Banks PSA 8, 1969 Jim Palmer PSA 9OC, 1970 Hank Aaron PSA 8 and some others I can't recall off the top of my head.

I haven't been buying much raw off eBay lately because there's too much overgraded garbage which cancels out any gains made by the occasional find.

BBCI

Not that recent, but....

picked up a 67 Mantle at a card show for $200, got it graded a PSA 9, and sold it for $3,500.

Don

thegemmintman

<< <i>If you have read the 71 Clemente Kellogg's thread mine is obvious. I bought it raw for around $90 and it graded a ten. The debate is still on about its worth. The consensus says 2-3k. >>



Tschaef, that was only one person's opinion. I'm thinking more in the $1,500-2000 range, but the only way to find out for sure is Ebay .






<< <i>1964 Topps Giant Dick Stuart that I bought raw for $2.50 and came back a PSA 9... >>



Luxury you lucky bastage!

aro13

Great stories! I have got a couple of good deals on ebay - an ungraded Gene Shue for $12 from 57-58 Topps Basketball which I sent to PSA and it came back a 7 and a 61-62 Fleer Carl Braun card which was graded NM by the seller and it came back a PSA 8. I paid $10 for the card. I guess the best raw deals I got were some C56 hockey cards that I paid EXMT prices in Canadian dollars and they came back PSA 7's. 5 of the cards i bought raw that came back 7's and 8's are the highest graded by PSA.

uniship

A couple years ago I purchased a stack of absolutely beautiful 58's - about 200 in total. I think I paid about $800 for the lot. These were being sold by a great local dealer who watched the guy open the very 1958 wax box (which yielded a bgs 9 mantle/aaron card - not graded by me) he was even selling the actual 58 box for $200 - I passed on that, but I basically bought the common remainders. Well those sweet cards graded out at mostly 8's (about 60% returned 8 - the rest mostly 7's - no 9's). I sold one of the 8's for $360 - several others for well over $100 - and many in the $25-$75 range. In fact I have a PSA 8 Buddy Pritchard (population of seven win none higher) up on ebay right now and I have a hunch it will command big bucks. That was my best raw find from a dealer.

GangstaJayson

got a bunch of cards from a lady at work, got a roy campenella psa 8 and a hank aaron psa 7 1956 topps... all the rest i did'nt even bother to grade

goodriddance189

i bought a lot of late 70s-early 80s hockey stars and rooks for around 100 bucks a few years back. so far i have gotten 9s on the following-
1980 opc gretzky, bourque rookie, gartner, and a few commons
1981 opc- messier, cicarelli, larry murphy (2), and gretzky
1984 opc- gretzky, yzerman rook, neely rook, 2 gilmour rooks
1979 opc- gordie howe

all in all, i made about a grand selling everything

tschaef

Gemmintman

You may be right. Either way it is my best raw find(so far) and I may just find out it's worth. I'm torn!

bengineno9

5 raw 1988-89 OPC hockey sets put together from vending. Got them really cheap on a "buy it now" off ebay. The Shanahan and Hull RC's were perfect. My last submission i got four PSA 9's and one PSA 8 on the Shanahan's and one PSA 9 and 2 PSA 8's on the Hull's.
Also submitted several commons for my set. 1 PSA 8, 4 PSA 9's, and my first PSA 10.

BEN

anjcollection

Lot of 2000 1973 Topps cards from a Superior Auction several years ago (1999). Still paying dividends, though I'm about to sell it all off!

snakedr

I don't post a lot on these boards, but do enjoy reading what most everyone has to say! I collect the 1961 Topps BB set and my set can be found on the registry "T Harbin Collection". As I neared completion of my set, I like most collectors of the 61 set was having a hard time finding the Jim Gentile hi number card in high condition for sale. I tried to buy an 8 twice on ebay, the first one I underbid and the second one, I had a snipe bid that would have probably have won the card, but Ebay went down for the last 5 minutes or so that night right at auction closing time, there were many posts about the night on this forum. Well I lost that one too! At that time that was the last card I needed to reach 100%, and as you know that's too close, so the chase was on! I decided to look for a raw one, the best I could find, have it graded, and upgrade it later, figuring the best I would be able to find 'might' grade a 7, but more than likely a 6 or so. So, I found one, bought it, paid way too much for it, a little over $200 for a raw card and sent it in! That was last month, when PSA had the special on for $20 you could get a card graded in 2 days. I doubt if anyone else on these boards has ever done anything like that before? To end this story, I checked the submission status regularly and when it popped up, it came back a "9"! I just knew it was a misprint or something like that, so when it finally arrived in the mail, sure enough, there in my hands was a #559 Jim Gentile 1961 BB card graded a 'Mint 9'. The first Gentile card ever graded a 9, and still the only one!
If you would like to take a look, please be my guest as I have a photo posted with my set on the registry.
I am still trying to upgrade a few cards, probably will be for a long time.

thanks for starting this thread as I have been wanting to share this find with the world, who would have thought that at 50 years and counting, this would still be this much fun!

brucemo

My biggest win is still a '59 Topps #50 Mays that I bought for about a hundred bucks raw, sent it in, and got a PSA-9.

I've had a bunch of 8's on some pretty big stuff, a few 9's and 10's on lower-valued stuff, but the Mays is still the biggest for me.

bruce

Aaronman

My latest best buy was a 1966 Bobby Richardson. I bought it raw for $20 and it came back from PSA in a 9 holder. I also just bought a 1959 set that has some absolute killer cards in it. Every card was NM or better with about 15% having centering problems. I have not yet decided to get them graded.


Doug