Help a PSA newbie...

ajw

Ok, I just stumbled across this forum a few days ago and have been busy reading a ton of posts during that time. The only graded cards I have came as box-toppers in some minor league boxes I opened. Honestly, graded cards have never much appealed to me. That is changing slightly, though.

I wonder if some of you would mind helping me out with some very basic questions.

1. Is there a paper copy of the population report/price guide available? (if possible, I'd like to get one that is out of date by a month or two just to page through and study the hobby.)

2. If you crack 85 Topps Vending boxes, how many Clemens do you need to find before you get one that could potentially be a PSA 10? (not this card specifically, but just a general question.)

3. If you pulled 100 1985 Clemens cards and graded them all, what would the distribution be? (roughly, of course)

4. What is the dollar value percentage step down for each PSA grade? (10 = $1000, 9 = $600 and so on) Are these percentages fairly standard for vintage and modern?

5. If you submit 10 cards that you think could realistically get a PSA 10, how many will? If you're a good submitter, are your estimates ever off by more than one grade?

Thanks so much to anyone that bothers to help someone who is new to PSA and considering jumping into the hobby. I'm sure that I'll have even more questions soon!

WinPitcher

pm me your address and I will send u a copy of last months SMR as soon as my new one comes, as for all your other questions I have no idea............

pandrews

in my opinion, the step-down value between 10s, 9s and 8's (etc) is dependant alot on the population report.. there can be a huge difference from card to card..

crsportscards33

Just wanted to say welcome and run. Run fast and run far. Seriously though, if you tinker around on here long enough you will begin to buy cards here and there, next thing you know, you'll be addicted like the rest of us. Get out while you can!!

CW

1. taken care of...

2. 10's are VERY hard to come by, especially if you're talking
1985 Topps. Realistically, a well centered 9 and a 10 can be
almost indistinguishable, depending on how closely you look at a
card. Since many of the '85 Topps cards come off-centered or
have print defects, a 10 is quite rare. This also applies to
anything vintage. I personally can't see paying the premium for
a 10, when a 9 is an awesome card, but to each their own.

3. That's hard to estimate, but I'd guess that on average most
cards you pull from that year will grade 7 or 8. The best thing
is to check out some graded cards, in person, across all the grades.
This will give you a good measuring stick. People that are new to
PSA often don't realize how tough they can be. Minor surface wrinkles,
even if they're on the back, will downgrade a card drastically.

4. This also varies, especially with vintage. Best thing to do is
check out the SMR that WinPitcher has kindly offered to send you.

5. Your chances improve with experience. I don't submit much at all,
so I can't really help you on this one.

Good luck, and welcome! What do you collect?

AlanAllen

Welcome! I get the impression you have an analytical mind, which will serve you well most of the time in the graded card market. The rest of the time it will drive you batty

1. Pop report - no. Price guide - yes. There used to be a paper pop report, but it was getting unusably large, so they stopped printing it 4 or 5 years ago.

2. Highly dependent on the set, the condition/preservation of the box, and the factory run it came from. I don't know enough about '85 Topps to speak intelligently about the Clemens, but I'd guess roughtly one 10 per case?

3. Ditto on the expertise issue. You can look at the pop report and get an idea, but keep in mind people obviously submit their best cards, so a sampling of 100 slabbed cards would be nicer than a sampling of 100 raw cards.

4. The percentages are not at all standard. The more condition-sensitive the set, the higher the multiplier. I'd recommend tracking ebay prices for a while on any sets you're interested in.

5. It depends on how good you are, and frankly how lucky you get. If you use a loupe and take a very objective critical look at your cards, you might get 20-40% 10's. As for the second part, the answer is yes but rarely. I have been off by more than 1 grade maybe 2-5% of the time, mostly because I missed a back surface wrinkle or something like that. Once, that's once, a card came back 9 that I thought would be 7.

Joe

Wayne8348

ajw,

There have been over 15,000 Roger Clemens cards graded from the 85 topps and 75 of them have made the grade of psa 10. That equals about .5% of the total graded were 10's. Over 60% of the cards ended up as psa 8's. If only (and this is just a guess) 20% of the cards are worthy of submitting to psa then you would have to go through approximately 2500 raw cards in order to get 1 psa 10. This is nothing but a guess but if I was looking for a clemens psa 10 then I would recommend ebay verses trying to find your own.

Welcome to the boards.

Wayne

ajw

Guys, thanks for the answers. I'd still like to hear from other collectors to see what they have to say. By the way, I used 1985 Clemens simply as an example. The year and player aren't important. I know the answers are all best guesses, but your best guess is way better than me just making it up. ;-)

CW, since you asked, I'll give you a bit of my story. (Honestly, I haven't talked about this in a long time, so it kinda feels nice to share...)

I became a Will Clark fan when he was a rookie and collected Clark pretty seriously throughout his career. I bought as many as his 1987 rookies (all three) for no more than a buck a piece back in 88 or so. I remember doing the math when his 1987 Fleer hit $35. I actually sold a bunch so I could afford a new pair of Air Jordans. I dropped off when he left the Giants, more when his career tailed off and nearly completely since he retired. The main reason was that I really like buying cards at shows, and dealers stopped bringing their Clark cards with them. I can't tell you how often I heard "I've got a whole bunch back in the shop/basement/garage." I'd say that I have somewhere around 1200 different Will cards (not counting duplicates, of course.) I don't have many that are worth much, and only one bat card and a few autos. For me, I'd rather walk away from a show with 25 cards I didn't have that were worth a quarter each than one bat card that cost me $15. I did buy one guy's collection in about 94 that cost me about $150. It was *great* to add a bunch of cards I didn't have, but it took a lot of the fun out of going to shows and putting them together piece by piece.

I don't know that anyone really cares, but that's my story. As you can see, I'm not exactly the kind of guy that'll spend $50 on a PSA 10 Clark...or at least I'm not yet.

Tipem

ajw,


Welcome to the boards.Most have already given you good advice.I only collect vintage and do not submit much myself but I would add that a good loupe(magnifying glass)(lighted) and an even better eye will go a long way.You will find that with practice and time you will become a good judge of cards to submit.I concur with CW that 9's are a much better buy for the dollar,and most times indistinguishable.Sell the 10's,buy the 9's.


Vic

ajw

I stumbled across the Collector's Society message board and have been reading the saga with the Pete Rose card. Something refered to as WIWAG keeps coming up, but I'm not sure what that is. From what I can tell it was some incredible scandal, so I'm sure it's been beaten to death on this board...but if someone could give me the thirty second recap I would really appreciate it. (private message would be fine, if no one wants to reopen this can on the board)

Thanks again for the help. I've learned a lot in the last 48 hours.