Buying Raw Cards - Selling Graded Ones

jskirwin

Any advice on doing this on eBay?
Is there any term for this process (churning? bouncing?)?

I’m not trying to get rich, but I don’t want to lose money either.
I just thought I would put my new Collectors Club membership to good use*.
And I enjoy bidding.

Thanks!
JSK

*Justify the expense to the wife.

A761506

If you're talking about buying raw cards on eBay and having them graded, it's a pain in the neck way to try to make a few bucks, and has the potential to back-fire badly. You could wind up with trimmed or altered cards that are ungradable, as well as lower than expected grades. If you are in a position to buy up collections of cards that have many nice raw vintage cards in them, then you could be in good shape, but those opportunities don't come up very often.

Vargha

Buy raw only in person unless there is a no-hassle return policy.

MRyanF

Even still, look at what high grade common from the 70's go for -$9.99 all the time. 1980's are worse and if you get a PSA 8 forget it.

So there is really no good way to make it work if you have to pay normal submission fees.

EagleEyeKid

I've had my ups and downs doing it through Ebay.
Anywhere from trimmed to PSA 10. Most of the stuff fell in between grades of 7 - 9.
The ones that were mint indeed, I've gone back to the same seller. Also check whatever
else the seller is selling. If he has a bunch of PSA 9s and 10s and is also selling a bunch
of raw; I would not bother.....obviously the raw were not worth sending in.
I also try not to spend over $20 on a raw card. Anything over that and hoping for high
grade would just prove disappointing and a waste of money. Like you, I like to bid/buy.
It's the fun of getting goodies in the mail everyday.

Rainman

I frequently buy raw cards (mainly bowman chrome/bowman chrome draft) off ebay and send them for grading. In the 2 years i have been on ebay, i have done very well..gotten many PSA 10s from buying raw cards. Key is to look for a picture (though certain sellers- like mr.mem- are reliable/you will get quality cards w/o a picture), look @ their feedback, etc.

DirtyHarry

Ditto Rainman. There are some very reputable raw dealers - you just have to lock in to them via some low risk trial and error.

Rainman - have to ask - how many toothpicks?

SDavid

You can find gradeable cards through dealers that open product and list the cards without cherry picking. There aren't too many of those guys, though, and the ones that do exist (like mr. mem) get much better prices for their raw stuff. This means you will lose money when you resell the cards that aren't gem mint.

Buying from random ebayers, even with modern cards, is risky business. You can get 10's, but you'll get a lot of crap in the process. I set up snipes for cards that are much lower than what the cards usually go for. So, even if it isn't gem (and they usually aren't), I still come out ahead. If they're below nm/mt, I ask for a refund. You NEVER want to pay the going rate for a card unless it's from a reputable dealer. Buying rookie lots can also work, but you have to make sure you're getting a good price.

A word on reputable dealers - DON'T assume that, because a dealer doesn't have graded card sales in his f/b history that he's not submitting cards. There are many sellers who do just what you do and they relist the ungradeable cards under different accounts. One tell-tale sign is that they only list valuable star cards from a wide assortment of sets. A dealer who's just opening product and listing it will have all the cheap inserts and commons up for sale too.

One other thing - in a previous post Vincecarder listed all the ebay sales from one of Vince's key serial-numbered rookies. As I recall, most of the cards that were resold on ebay as bgs 9.5's or psa 10's were actually purchased as psa or bgs 9's. Most of the raw cards were just resold raw or as 9's if they were relisted at all. You could probably do better with newer cards just buying already graded ones and resubmitting the borderline 9/10 cards. It's not as risky doing that with newer cards because 9's generally sell the same as raw cards anyway. Sometimes they sell for less (depending on the set), which shows you how bright a lot of modern collectors really are.

jskirwin

Last night I passed up a "NMMT+" 1972 Joe Namath in Action that I had been following from $8 all week. It ended at $59. According to SMR, at EXMT6 the card sells for $110, at NM7 $160. I let it go because I don't gamble, and it felt way too much like gambling at that price for a family man like me.

I've noticed that raw cards often sell for more than graded ones - which doesn't make any sense to me unless people are paying for the expectation a card will grade higher. If true, that's pretty dumb.

helionaut

You should also remember that SMR prices are wildly inaccurate in most cases. They are like taking a snapshot of a freeway at some random time during the day, and then looking at that photo every time you're curious what traffic is like on that road. For instance, a PSA 7 1972 Namath IA just sold for $111, almost a third lower than SMR, while 2 8s just sold for $110 (!) and $133, which I bet are about half what SMR says. A described "NMMT+" could be anywhere from VG-EX to Mint according to PSA, chances on the lower end, and you're right to be cautious, as without personal inspection, that's a potential dud.