Question....Vintage baseball POP analysis

zsz70

What is your opinion on POP reports that show the
STAR players having 100's of cards graded and the
commons showing much less.

Is this because people kept the stars, or because
most of the commons have yet to be graded.

This question is directed towards 1960-1969,
and 1970-1974.

WinPitcher

before the set registry took on a life of its own many collectors/dealers chose to have the cards that had hi value graded. with the set registry common cards have become more valuable thus they have now been graded too.

mikeschmidt

1. Stars will get cracked out and submitted more, as there is greater potential for huge differentials in prices realized on an expensive card compared to a common card.

2. There is a market for HOF and star cards in mid/collector grade. For the years you've mentioned, most commons are worth little more than the grading fee in PSA 8, especially in the 1972-1974 world. There is a very, very small market for PSA 7s and below - and the grading fees almost never justify commons getting graded.

3. Most people don't feel the need/desire to spend thousands encapsulating a set that "they know" is NM across the board, or perhaps better or worse. Unless they're looking to sell (and then only if the grading fees justify it), why grade at all?

4. Dealer inventories and customer demand will always look for a Mickey Mantle or a Hank Aaron card - even if a top grade isn't affordable. There are not many dealers who get frequent requests for Biff Pocobora or Joe Schlobotnik, whether graded or raw.

Fuzz

Both.
I think the main effect is that most people only grade the stars. Look at both the number of hi grade examples and the total number graded. Many auctions show a set for sale with five to ten cards graded. The stars only mentality makes business sense and I think drives these submissions. Also don't forget there are alot of player collectors and they almost exclusively do stars. Other than Don Mossi .......... who else would you collect that wasn't a big name player ?
I think the overall demand for commons is just low as it driven by set and team builders. There are a limited number of these even in the most widely collected sets. After all, why submit a card, spend the time, money and effort, wait the time get a good grade ........ only to find out it won't bring grading fees ?
You have to really want that card.
There is probably a formula that could be shown that the number of commons graded is a function of the number of sets being built give or take.
Fuzz

scottsusor

Graded vintage complete set building/collecting is itself a hobby that's still in its infancy. Regardless of the PSA Set Registry, it was something that was bound to happen eventually. And even now, most set builders are working only on their "favorite" sets. But just as with raw cards, these collectors (and more as time goes on) will want to build "runs" of complete graded vintage sets. Aside from the money required, there isn't much challenge in finding graded vintage superstar cards, but its quite a formiddable task to put together a complete set in PSA 7 or better, given the scarcity of certain high grade commons where the majority of those particular cards were cut off-center. I believe that, investment-wise, five years from now a lot of people will be scratching their heads and saying, "Why didn't I start putting together some of these sets five years ago?"

Scott