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raw cards from Cleveland National-grading results

I thought some of you may be interested. I am presently building the 1958 Topps set (slowly) in PSA 7-8 condition.

I picked up the following 6 raw cards at the National in Cleveland. In total, I purchased 14 raw cards at the National from the 1958 Topps set from various dealers after lots of looking around. I paid anywhere from 4-7$ per card. I just got around to sending the best 6 (I think) of them in for grading with my 6 free submissions that come with my annual dues.

the results:

1958 Topps #289 Series Hurling Rivals Burdette/Shantz PSA 7
1958 Topps #462 Gary Geiger PSA 8
1958 Topps #450 Preston Ward PSA 7
1958 Topps #390 Del Crandall PSA 8
1958 Topps #443 B. Harrell PSA 7
1958 Topps #417 Carl Furillo PSA 8

For those who don't know, the Harrell, Ward, and Geiger are short prints- the dealer who sold these to me sold them at 7$ per card. The dealer actually had about 15-20 copies of EACH card. He told me the guy he acquired them from hoarded these cards over many years because they were short prints. I picked out the best one I could find of the three from the dealer after examining for about 20 minutes, and he was eager to sell them to me at 7$ each. I thought the Ward was definetely a PSA 8 but I was wrong. It is perfectly cented 50/50 and sharp. I thought the Harrell was a borderline 7/8. The Geiger was very strong and I was even thinking 8/9. As usual I think about a half grade higher than the graders at PSA, unfortunately.

The Series Hurling Rivals is dead centered and I thought had a shot at an 8 but my guess is the grader didn't think the corners were sharp enough. I bought this card for 7$.

I thought the Furillo was a solid PSA 7- got an 8 so that was a big surprise! Also bought this one for 7$.

From a cost standpoint.. at average 6$ per card x 14 cards= 84$. Add 25$ for shipping there and back to PSA. Thats a total of 109$ Don't forget my cost of admission for two days to the National, parking, and gasoline ( I was living in Cleveland at the time). So all in all it cost me about 150$. Normally you would spend about 7$ per card for grading- thats another 42$. Grand total = 192$

So what are they worth now. I would say the Geiger would bring 125-200$ on Ebay, the Furillo about 50-60$, and the Crandall about 30-40$, Series Hurling Rivals about 20-25$, the other two short prints about 15$-20$/ each. Grand total= 255-365$

I also have 8 other raw cards that are likely exmt- nrmt that will remain in raw form. Sometime in the future I may submit the best 2 or 3 with the hope of getting a PSA 7. I don't think any others would get an 8.

All in all I made out- but its a lot of work ( but in my case also a lot of fun!).

Moral of the story- if you got an eye, you can still find high grade raw even at high profile shows like the National... But its a lot of work for a small number of cards.


If I bored you, I am sorry

Comments

  • rugbymarinerugbymarine Posts: 421 ✭✭✭✭
    Not boring at all.

    About how much total time over the two days to find those cards ??
  • RG58RG58 Posts: 119
    probably spent about 5-6 hours on Friday going through all the raw 1958s, then went back on Saturday for another 3 hours. I believe I looked at 80-90% of the raw 1958 cards available before I left Friday. There were a few others looking through the raw 1958s as well.

    I bought some other stuff (a few overpriced graded 1958 cards as well as high grade raw 1979 opc baseball) so not all my time was spent looking at raw 1958s.
  • thanks for the synopsis. It's great finding out how the card got from you to the PSA holder...and your initial thoughts about it.
  • RG58RG58 Posts: 119
    I have developed the ability to pick raw cards out for future PSA 7-8s from the 1958 set. This is my 3rd submission of 1958 topps and generally they come back as 7 and 8s. The problem I still have is doing better than about 60/40 in predicting which would get a 7 vs an 8. Some 8s are obvious like the Geiger card above- the rest of the cards were like a crap shoot. Although I am semi-happy with the results, ultimately I would prefer to submit and get back 80% 8 and 20% 7. The problem is that if I am too strict, I would miss sending in the occassional card that would be an 8 like the Furillo above.
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