Grading nightmare!! Help!!!
awsome63
Posts: 23
I have spent hours upon hours, days upon days, and weeks upon weeks of trying to make sure I send in the right cards to be graded. Of course I want to send in the cards that would be most profitable, but how do I make that judgement. I don't have the high tech equipment like PSA, and I don't want to send in a card that I think might get a 10 and then it comes back a 6 or 7. Going through hundreds of thousands of cards is time consuming. Is there a rule of thumb you use before sending a card in?? Cards vary so much in value from a 10 to a 9. It is too expensive to send the wrong cards in. I am getting so frustrated in choosing, that I want to get out of the hobby all together!! My purpose in grading is to sell on e-bay. I would like to turn my hobby into profit. I don't have the time anymore that it takes to continue collecting. I only want to send the cards in that I feel confident they would come back a 10. What is the best method you use? I no that no method can guarantee it would come back a 10. Please help.
Steve Merullo
0
Comments
If you have 500 cards that you're thinking of sending in - figure out the best 25 or 50 or whatever minimum you can send in at the service level you want. Try to measure the centering on those that you think are qestionable - check the corners with a 10x loupe and keep an eye out for any faint crease.
Before you send them in - figure out what YOU think the grade should be on each card. Send them in wait for the grades to pop. When they come back - see how you did. If YOUR grades are pretty much what you get - then you're all set! If not, try to figure out why - and if you can't - enlist the help of someone else who might be able to.
There will ALWAYS be surprises and some slight disagreement on the grades. But, if you wrote down 9's for cards that all come back as 7's - then you have some slight re-educating to be done.
Sets - 1970, 1971 and 1972
Always looking for 1972 O-PEE-CHEE Baseball in PSA 9 or 10!
lynnfrank@earthlink.net
outerbankyank on eBay!
This takes time and patience. If you don't have the time for collecting, then you might want to rethink whether you can really put the time in that it takes to get good submission results. If it was truly easy to make a killing, then everyone would be doing it.
Regards,
Alan
Alan - first time I've heard a black light mentioned. What's it for?
"All evil needs to triumph is for good men to do nothing."
when u do this it no longer is a hobby, but is now a job. be prepared to now spend time that was once used enjoying your colection and channel it to looking over material that is of hi grade. or if you have older stuff that needs authenticating send that in. the grades will follow
2005 Origins Old Judge Brown #/20 and Black 1/1s, 2000 Ultimate Victory Gold #/25
2004 UD Legends Bake McBride autos & parallels, and 1974 Topps #601 PSA 9
Rare Grady Sizemore parallels, printing plates, autographs
Nothing on ebay
As Helionaut says - the black light catches magic marker. This is most common on the 71 Topps black bordered regular set and the Greatest Moments set - kids (or adults) touching up the edges.
Sets - 1970, 1971 and 1972
Always looking for 1972 O-PEE-CHEE Baseball in PSA 9 or 10!
lynnfrank@earthlink.net
outerbankyank on eBay!
Erik
IMO the power of prayer also helps a great deal
good luck and may you be spared the grader of death.
The only way to get a good eye for grading is to start submitting. You will probably lose some money at first but like the other guy said, if it was easy money, everybody would do it.
It isn't very realistic to be looking to submit cards to PSA for the express purpose of getting a PSA 10. They just don't give them out that easily. I have done several submissions over the last few years and my PSA 10 ratio is one for every 18 - 20 cards graded. Its just not going to happen frequently, unless of course you use PRO grading services. The key to getting PSA 10's on the cards you want, is getting a quantity of the same card with all of them being MINT in condition. That means as close to 50/50 centering, with 4 sharp corners, and no surface defects. The problem is usually only dealers have this kind of a selection to choose from.
The best advice I can give is to look your cards over as closely as possible, picking the best centered first. Then look those over and pick the ones with the best corners, if you have any PSA 9 or PSA 10 cards use them as a frame of reference for judging corners. Then look them over carefully for surface defects, which include creases, scratches, paper bubbles, ink smears, and fish eye print defects. What you have at the end of that search are the best cards available to you. Send them in with the expectation the most will be PSA 9's, a few will be PSA 10's, and some will be PSA 8's, anything lower and you missed something. Break the low graded cards out and look for what you missed so that you don't repeat the mistake.
Hope this is useful,
Scott Jeanblanc
jeanblanc@iconnect.net
Ebay UserId : sjeanblanc
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Collecting Nolan Ryan cards 68-93
case in point:
I recently receive grades on a small batch of 84D's, most of which I was positive would hit at least 9's. I know these cards fairly well and use the usual methods mentioned above, but also incorporate a 20X-40X mircoscope for detailed corner analysis, as I feel it's in the corners where the majority of grade differential is found, especially in newer cards. I was disappointed that I was right at the 50% mark - half 9's (and a few 10's) and the rest 8's. (I did predict and receive a 10 on one card in particular!). That's an extremely sucky percentage for 9's and I can deal with that..........however.......
when I studied several 84D 9's I purchase a few months ago (and recently graded), I found the corners on many were just slightly more rounded at 20X than of those I just submitted. More like a 'point' than an 'edge'. (I would summize the purchased 9's must have come from a cello wrapped factory set; mine came from recent wax).
While I certainly will not rant, rave, or point fingers, I am disappointed in my findings. So, I will study these cards in even greater detail to see if I can do better, although at this time I'm not sure where to start. However, as I stated earlier, graders are humans too and subjected to unending conveyor-belt exposure to these cards......so even if your are extremely dialed in as a submitter, it's still somewhat of gamble to what the final tally from your submissions will be.
Overall, I am pleased with the grading of the big 3 - GAI, SGC, and PSA - but at times frustrated too.
Happy submitting,
BOTR
thanks, awsome63, (Steve).
Scott
PS the show is tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!
He didn't mention BGS because they've established a reputation for grading trimmed cards.
I remember first getting into graded cards about 1.5 years ago and felt BGS was at the top. I think a lot of newbies do. But spend some time talking graded cards at length and I think you'll see GAI, SGC, and PSA as the only real players in town.
BOTR