Why keep SMR and Pop Reports Private?

ajw · February 5, 2005 4:49AM

I'm not a member of PSA and won't be anytime in the near future. I would like, however, to browse the online SMR and Population Reports. As you know, I cannot, as only dues paying members have access. This is confusing to me, as it would seem beneficial to all PSA consumers to have access to this information, most specifically the Pop Reports. I'm sure there are lots of big time PSA collectors that don't submit cards themselves, and thus can't access the Pop reports. As we all know, the population is sometimes the only thing that drives a card's value, so keeping these secret from a big consumer base seems unwise.

Is there any chance PSA will open this data up to all their customers, even those that only purchase on the secondary market?

Axtell · February 5, 2005 5:10AM

Beckett doesn't give out their magazine for free, nor have an online source for free. Why shouldn't SMR?

I like the fact that it's reserved for members.

Lothar52 · February 5, 2005 5:12AM

im with you AJW....IM WITH YOU BROTHER!!!! YEEEEEEEEEEHAW!!

loth

ajw · February 5, 2005 5:13AM

SMR I can see keeping private, but what about the population report? It seems to me that giving everyone the population report will help sellers as much as buyers, as it allows everyone to know how rare a particular card is.

daywalker2029 · February 5, 2005 5:23AM

i dont think that SMR should be public cuz for purposes it is a price guide which should be paid for - but i agree that the population report should be available to all - the beckett pop report is and population has alot to do with sale prices of low pop cards

softparade · February 5, 2005 5:47AM

I would like the POP report become free. Alot of people buy PSA cards that don't submit to PSA. The POP report is a nice tool for buying. Making it free could only help PSA IMO. These people buy cards from dealers that will only submit more to PSA if their sales go up.....

jaxxr · February 5, 2005 6:01AM

I believe you can get Beckett's Pop. report free, you merely have to register with Beckett at no charge.

SGC is free, registration needed also, GAI is unavailble, under construction, or just too complex for me to get at.

I just looked at the 3 sites, for another reason, looked up two semi-stars from 1956, Jensen and Minoso. In total there were 637 cards graded. PSA represents over 93% of these slabs.

I guess if you want any accurate idea of a card's population, especially vintage about 1980 and before, PSA has the most data of real use. Perhaps that may be why they feel a small fee is quite reasonable for non-members.

Whale · February 5, 2005 6:49AM

I don't have a computer so I can't access the online pop or smr. PSA should give out computers. If I had a computer I could look cards up and then have the confidence needed to actively buy and sell PSA cards. I'd only be buying and selling PSA graded cards so PSA's cost for the computer would pay off in no time. If they hooked me up with a cable modem I'd be making them money even faster. In the meantime I'll just continue to call my buddy up and have him search PSA registry sets for cards I need a pop of. Anybody know off hand what the pop and smr of a 89 UD Griffey in PSA8 is? The only SMR I have is 5 years old and I want to see if it's gone up since then.

softparade · February 5, 2005 7:01AM

Did ya mail in that response to the PSA message board and have them post it?

Fuzz · February 5, 2005 7:06AM

The SMR holds value and the online magazine analogy is a good one.
But,......... the pop report is where all the value is. Of course you want to see the pop report, information contained therein, while not 100% accurate is close enough to be indespensible when assessing relative prices to pay for cards. Not being able to see this is like playing poker without peeking at your hole cards. I never look at the online SMR as for the sets I collect, I have a rough idea already of the prices and the relative tough cards. If not, a completed items search on eBay will put you in the ballpark.
For my yearly fee, I don't care about the free grades, I don't care about the SMR magazine or the online version, though I use them and think they do a nice job. Just give me the pop reports. It takes very, very little time in collecting coins to figure out that the pop report is everything. Just one or two good pick ups aided by the pop report pays for the yearly fee.
By comparison, in the coin world, the pop reports are once a month hardcopys that over $20 each. And worth every penny.
Fuzz

GoBravesGo · February 5, 2005 8:26AM

It is simple ecconomics. If you want to see it, they are going to charge for it. It is called Supply and Demand. I personally do not know what the big deal is, most folks around here say that the Pop report is all wrong any way.

ezyshooter · February 5, 2005 8:34AM

I am a member and agree that the pop report should be free to all. Especially when people on e-bay start stating lies about how many cards are actually graded in that grade. How many times have you seen bogus 1 of ?? When all we have to do is check it out. But for non-members who may have larger collections of PSA graded cards get decieved alot. It's like the people who put up 1 of 1 OPC PSA 7 Gretzky rookies. I e-mail them with either no response or because they have the only one with that serial number. ???
Well that's my 2 cents for the day.
Steve

ctsoxfan · February 5, 2005 10:35AM

<< <i>I don't have a computer so I can't access the online pop or smr. PSA should give out computers. If I had a computer I could look cards up and then have the confidence needed to actively buy and sell PSA cards. I'd only be buying and selling PSA graded cards so PSA's cost for the computer would pay off in no time. If they hooked me up with a cable modem I'd be making them money even faster. In the meantime I'll just continue to call my buddy up and have him search PSA registry sets for cards I need a pop of. Anybody know off hand what the pop and smr of a 89 UD Griffey in PSA8 is? The only SMR I have is 5 years old and I want to see if it's gone up since then. >>

Nice -

EagleEyeKid · February 5, 2005 2:01PM

I'm a member and I don't even use the SMR.
I do however frequent the POP report page at least once a week.
Before I was a member, I was purchasing PSA cards online and couldn't
get the POP report, so I had to resort to a friend for the info.
I think the POP report should be made public for those who purchase
PSA cards online and for non members as well. I think that's one of the attraction
of potentially picking up something that is perceived rare or scarce with
the information readily available. The SMR can stay private.

1979COLLECTOR · February 6, 2005 1:09PM

You do not have to become a member to view the Pop Report. You can pay 5.00 / month to view it as a "non-member" ......

wolfbear · February 6, 2005 1:18PM

Why buy the cow if you're getting the milk for free ?

gmoneystyles · February 6, 2005 1:56PM

I buy the POP and SMR online once every six months or so. I save the page to a folder and have it under my "links" in internet explorer. I can quickly access both this way.

baseballcardsonly · February 6, 2005 2:48PM

Why would if matter if they did give it away...both are wrong anyway!

SMR prices are a dream world with ebay (usless it is a rare/low POP card)

POP reports can't be correct with all the busted slabs and resubmitts going on.

Just my .02

carew4me · February 6, 2005 9:13PM

POP reports can't be correct with all the busted slabs and resubmitts going on.

Fabfrank · February 7, 2005 12:52AM

ajw- To answer your question, it's a simple business decision. PSA feels (and obviously you do too) that the pop report has value. Their decision is to charge for that service. Your decision is whether you want to pay or not.

calleocho · February 7, 2005 2:02AM

im not sure but i think the sister company PGCS has a program were they pay you .50 cents for every flip you return, maybe PSA should do that as well.

NickM · February 7, 2005 11:39AM

I use the pop reports on the Set Registry. They're free, and cover most cards I might be looking at.

Nick

Tabe · February 7, 2005 4:31PM

<< <i>Beckett doesn't give out their magazine for free, nor have an online source for free. Why shouldn't SMR? >>

Beckett has their full price guide online and completely searchable - for free.

Tabe

NickM · February 8, 2005 3:35AM

Tabe - how do you do the free Beckett Search for cards that don't have a player name (checklists, some World Series cards, etc.)?

I've never gotten that to work.

Nick

CollectorChris · February 8, 2005 11:47AM

I believe it should be kept private because it's priviledged information for those willing to pay for the benefits of being a PSA member. It's very reasonable.

kingraider75 · February 9, 2005 7:06AM

I rarely see anyone use SMR for prices, the standard still seems to be beckett. Pop reports are good to have, however it's mainly sellers that try to jack up their prices who even bother talking about them. PSA charges about $100 for a year just to have the right to submit cards, so they aren't likely to start giving out anything for free.

Tabe · February 9, 2005 8:37AM

<< <i>Tabe - how do you do the free Beckett Search for cards that don't have a player name (checklists, some World Series cards, etc.)?

I've never gotten that to work.

Nick >>

You can search on just the set, or include the card number if you have it. If there's a specific card you can't get to work, LMK and I'll see if I can do it.

Tabe

Why keep SMR and Pop Reports Private?

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