Question for any 1956 topps baseball collectors out there

tribeman

I have around 50 psa 6 and 7 1956 topps baseball cards and have examined at least that many others and I have noticed quite a discrepency in grades. For instance, I have seen many psa 6's that look as nice or better than many psa 7's, and have found many 7's that don't look as nice as many 6's. There seems to be a range of condition that makes it almost a crap shoot as far as if a card will end up in a 6 slab or a 7 slab. Has anyone else noticed the same thing? Has anyone had any luck resubmitting 6's and getting 7's. I think many that I've seen are so hard to tell apart that the 6's seem like a pretty good deal. By the way, I've examined them with a 10x loupe. The 8's are no doubters and the 5's are definitely not 6's or 7's, but there are so many 6's and 7's that you can't tell the difference on.

waitilltheytrytosell

A lot of 6's that look better than 7's will have a very minor wrinkle on the back. It will be on the short side, in the middle, at the edge. Most of the time they are hard to see, but if you view the card at different angles they pop right out. They were caused by careless people with fat fingers taking them in and out of tight pages and holders. Most people don't think to look for these prior to submitting them. They are only seen when the card comes back in the "wrong" holder and you then look real hard to try to find where the problem with the card is. PSA is real good at catching them. Many other grading companies don't bother to look.

tribeman

that is true for sure, but I've noticed that even the corner wear seems so similar between 6's and 7's

RedHeart54

Talking about '56s makes me sick- at least since my 9-quality Koufax came back as "power erased".

kverd5432

RedHeart54, who did you purchase the raw Koufax from?

radiationguy

Tribeman, I know where you are coming from. I have sent in about 75 1956 cards over the last few months and the results are sometime puzzling. The cards that I got back that were PSA 6's I cracked out and sent back in. Overall about 30% of the PSA 6's would come back a 7. I have a 1956 Reds team for sale now that came back a 6 and I have went over this card with a 10x glass and for the life of me can't see it not being a 7. This leads me to believe there is very little difference between a 6 or a 7 and it mostly depends on who you get that day. The good thing is of the 300 cards I have submitted over the last 6 months the grades are very consistent. Tougher but consistent.

RedHeart54

kverd-

I believe I got the Koufax from an outfit called The Best of Baseball who were out of N.Y. This was some years ago and well before grading really took off. $500 down the toilet.

Scoop

Over the last 3 years, I have submitted over 250 '56's with the majority of PSA 8's residing in my set.

Since I was the sole owner of these cards as I got them directly from wax packs as a kid and carefully stored them all the same, and inspected them and only sent off the nicest ones (centered, nicest corners, and no wrinkles or creases), I was always amazed at the discrepency in grading. I guess with the human factor in my eye and the different grader's eyes, this can happen

Here are a couple of submissions:

#413906 -- Here I broke out the 5 and 6 and most of the 7's and resubmitted and got back only three 7's and the rest 8's.

#863142 -- Here was a strange submission. Three 9's, four 7's, and a trimmed Killebrew. I resubmitted the latter 5 cards and got three 8's, and two 7's including the Killebrew (the first grader must have seen a questionable edge).

#898231 -- Some of the resubmissions are on this one. Here, I only submitted the nicest 7's (and sold the rest) and got back about half of them as 8's.

So as you can see, there is as much a discrepency between 7's and 8's as there is 6's and 7's.

The difference is, that there is enough of a value difference between a 7 and 8 that it is makes the resubmission worth the effort. Unless it is a rare or star card, you cannot say the same for the upgrade from 6 to 7.

To tell you the truth, even with all the talk about PSA getting tougher, I am seriously considering going thru all my 8's and picking out the nicest ones to see if I can get a 9 or two. It would definitely be worth it.

Tipem

Unless you send in 8's and get back 7's

Vic

brucemo

If you see a 7 that looks nicer than an 8, you are not hallucinating. They do exist. And if you send the 7 back in, it might get an 8.

bruce