Waverly82 does it again

jason045

This dude just got $104 for a RAW 1972 Topps Blue IA!!! His stuff is nice, but its not worth that kind of gamble. I have bought "mint" cards from him before and the best I've ever gotten is an 8. Just on question. If a raw, mint, centered, Blue IA goes for $104, what would a PSA 8 bring?

WinPitcher

Eric does have a following for raw cards. That is one reason he gets strong prices for cards like 72 blue ia. I have no idea what that card brings in 8

MorrellMan

pulling an 8 on anything raw off ebay is a major accomplishment.

mcastaldi

I mean raw on eBay is a total risk vs. reward question. You have to ask yourself can you afford the worst-case scenario?
In this last auction run, Waverly got $34 for a "Mint" Frank Robinson (card# 100) - eBay# 5157760123

In this case, the way I'd look at is -
1) The total cost is $37.30 shipped (w/insurance).
2) If you add $6 for grading, you're into your now-graded card for $42.30
3) $42.30 is more than double what the last two PSA8 NQ examples went for (#5153706288 @ $14.50 & #5153534443 @ $18.50)
4) The way I see it, if you send that card to PSA and it comes back an 8 then you overpaid pretty dramatically.
5) At the same time, if the card comes back a 9 NQ then you got a good deal since PSA9s tend to go in the $100-$115 price range.

Ultimately you have to decide on your own as to what price makes the risk tolerable or not. Obviously prior experience with the seller, knowledge of the set, & knowledge of grading standards are some of the factors which can affect this decision. But ultimately you have to balance price with the degree of risk. Obviously, the lower the price the more risk most of us are willing to take on.

Mike

SDavid

Mike -

In that scenario, you'd be better off buying 2 or 3 well centered high end 8's and resubmitting the best one.

I believe waverly gets a lot, if not all, of his raw cards from raw ebay sets. So, if someone wants a shot at gradeable raw cards, they could always cut out the second middle man and buy the "high grade" sets. There's more money involved, but at least you'd be buying in bulk.

SDavid

Jason -

How many 8's did you get and how many cards did you purchase?

ctsoxfan

I got caught up a few months back when he was breaking up a "high grade" 1975 set. Thank goodness, I was outbid or outsniped on all of the big cards, but I won one. When I got it - I was shocked. You couldn't send this "Mint" card to PSA on its best day. That was enough for me.

SDavid

When you think about it, instead of buying and breaking complete sets, that guy should just buy psa 7's and 8's under a different account and crack them out. He'd make a ton of money and his customers would probably continue to be happy.

I'm guessing that most of his customers are just raw card collectors who aren't interested in grading their cards. He probably does have a lot nicer cards than most raw card dealers. Why those people don't just buy graded cards and turn them into raw cards, I don't know, but to each his own.

ranger63

<< <i>pulling an 8 on anything raw off ebay is a major accomplishment. >>



i bought a lot of raw marino and elway rookies. six of each total. all 8s and 1 marino 9. best 250 i ever spent.

jayhawke

"Why those people don't just buy graded cards and turn them into raw cards, I don't know, but to each his own. "

Because of the risk of cracking a card out and damaging it. Now you would have been better off over paying for a raw card.

SDavid

Opening a psa slab is as easy as cracking an egg. There's almost no risk to that. There's much more risk of a raw card in a toploader arriving damaged in your mail box.

It looks like waverly82 has some competition. Old-card-player on ebay recently outsold psa 9's in auctions for two fairly valuable '75 Topps football cards. I never thought I'd see that. Anyone ever deal with him before?

gregm13

Old card player's stuff is top notch. I was bidding on the Swann rookie up to $90 or so. I still can't believe it sold for over $100. I bought a bunch of 60's and 70's from him and received all 8's or 9's including a 1972 Bradshaw IA PSA 9 9and 2 or 3 other 1972 PSA 9's) and a Rocky Bleir PSA 9 rookie (all of which I bought raw off him). You have to be careful w/ his stuff because a lot tends to be off centered, which is easily noticed from the great scans that he posts.

Regards,

Greg M.

highend

of all the raw sellers on ebay i've probably had the best luck with eric.

the psa 8 blue ia i have in my set was a raw nm-mt card from waverly, i think i won it for 66.00.

the blue ia is arguably THE toughest card in the 72 set with the kendall, houk, and 524 reds rookies rounding out the group.

the centering on the one he had up this week was better than mine, i wasn't sure it would grade a 9 but i thought it had a very good shot at an 8 . i bid almost 80 bucks on the card.
at that price, i felt i could break even and improve my copy at the same time... if it made an 8.

if the card made a nine then it would have been a complete steal, i would have sold my 8 offline to a registry member and had the 9 for FREE!

DSL sold the only nine for 400+ a few months ago.

having said that i do have a couple of VERY expensive psa 7's laying around courtesy of waverly82. its a gamble, even though in my experience with him he has ALWAYS given me a refund if i felt the card was overgraded.

dakota

I have tried Eric twice and both times I had to send cards back due to them being recolored(71s and a 75 card). He immediately refunded my money and handled the situation great. Maybe just bad luck on my part but not gonna go for third times the charm.Im sure he was not the one doing the recoloring and thus the gamble of buying raw on ebay.I have to restrain myself from spending crazy money on raw cards when I cant hold them in my hand and personally look at them even from reputable ebay dealers.I dont understand the high prices Waverly and guys like 71toppsman(can you say PSA 7) are getting by breaking up sets.More power to them I guess.

jason045

Well I have to give it to him this time. I bought three of the 72s he most recently offered. Milt Pappas, Ollie Brown, and Cleon Jones IA. The Pappas and Brown were listed as mint and the Jones as Nm/Mt. I got them in today and they are SUPERB! They should all pull 9s. The Jones IA is one of the best centered examples I have ever seen. Kudos to Eric this time.

aloof1003

Dakota,

The same happened to me, bought a 71 rose which was recolored and didn't send back for two weeks. Even though it was past his return date he still refunded my grading fee.

scott

Ripken

Still getting PHENOMENAL prices for raw. Some '72s tonight going for amazing numbers. I've sold some nice raw cards on EBay but can't get close to what he's getting. He must have a tremendendous following.

jrdolan

Why do his raw cards that he calls NM-MT sell for more than the same cards already graded PSA 8? Is it because his buyers sometimes get 9's out of them? The ones I saw tonight, I couldn't tell from the scan whether it was a high-end NM-MT or even just a NM. Ripken must be right, he has repeat customers who have done well in the past and trust him.

lostdart58

A 72 Vida Blue IA PSA 9 sold for $304. tonight on the bay.

gaspipe26

I thought the Schaal IA was one of the toughest?
Anyone want 1972 Blue IA that will grade 9 OC LMK I have over 100.

highend

i have had luck with eric before, having said that, last night his raw 72's outsold my 72 psa 8's in some cases by a large margin.....go figure.

gemint

I had a problem with a few cards. I bought a high grade 1975 set off him before he started breaking them up and selling the cards individually. The Rose and a few other stars were recolored. He returned by money after some explanation about professional grading and how they detect recoloring. I also paid $50 for a "NM-MT" 1957 common. Even though it looks like a good card and measures properly, it came back "EVID TRIM" on two occassions. Due to the length of time in grading, I didn't bother to ask for a refund.

Carew29

Holy crap!!! Take a look at the 56's he listed today!!!!!!!!!!!!

smallstocks

Let's see how this comparison works. I listed a few 1972 high numbers yesterday that I believe I graded very strictly as PSA would. We will see what these cards bring.

mike

MajorDanby

i bought a few raw cards off old-card player once. it was a 60 topps koufax and some other 61 topps items. I sent the koufax to psa and got a 7 on it.

lebal is also a good raw dealer.

gemint

<< <i>I thought the Schaal IA was one of the toughest?
Anyone want 1972 Blue IA that will grade 9 OC LMK I have over 100. >>



Not so sure now. Steve Pekovich, AKA "Doc", has boosted the population of that card in recent months.

jrdolan

Back when my entire collection was raw, I had an "I don't wanna know" attitude about whether cards were trimmed or otherwise doctored. If it wasn't obvious to my eye, I didn't use a black light or a 10x loupe to look for signs of alteration. This was back in the '80s. Then I was out of the hobby for many years, and when I came back I was upset at the number of "evid' trimming" and "evid. alteration" I was getting on my submissions (plus the usual culture shock of learning that my "NM" cards were actually 6's and my "Mint" cards were actually 7's and 8's).

So I imagine when someone like Waverly buys complete raw sets on eBay, he doesn't black-light and loupe every one of 600 or 700 cards in each set before flipping them back out on eBay. He probably just does a quick eyeball to assign a grade. No doubt he does catch some doctored cards that way, but as his customers above have testified, some get past him. It's great that he refunds for altered cards; it's a cost of doing business and it's to his advantage not to have PO'd customers. But the point is that even "trusted" sources aren't immune. Often they didn't pull them from wax packs or vending boxes themselves, they bought them in bulk from collectors. Hopefully they give some scrutiny to the most valuable cards in each set, but close examination of each common? I could be wrong, but I wouldn't think so.

lostdart58

<< <i>

<< <i>I thought the Schaal IA was one of the toughest?
Anyone want 1972 Blue IA that will grade 9 OC LMK I have over 100. >>



Not so sure now. Steve Pekovich, AKA "Doc", has boosted the population of that card in recent months. >>



Set registry still lists the pop for the Schaal IA better then PSA 8 as 1

There is also only 1 #150 Norm Cash PSA 9......1 - 296 Dietz IA and there is of course NO Reds rookie card above an 8

mcastaldi

Bob> I'm not sure there are any truly "low pop" cards in the 72 set anymore - at least in PSA8 NQ. Obviously some cards will always be tougher than others, like the Schaal IA, Blue IA, Reds RC, etc. But when you reach a situation where the lowest-pop card has more examples than there are people wanting the card, it isn't "low pop" anymore.

I mean take the 68 set. How many cards could be "low pop" when at any given time almost every card is readily available in PSA8 NQ? With the 68 set, this is largely true in PSA9 NQ as well.

Mike