Follow-up: Cost of grading vs value
Buccaneer
Posts: 1,794 ✭✭
This is a follow-up to a thread a little while back attempting to analyze where the break-even points on grading commons, as well as looking at a realistic return on investment.
Below is a report from my database analyzing - for commons only - the cost per card using 60% SMR. These cards are defined as non-stars (not non-HOF) but would include minor and semi-minor stars, as well as high numbers and short prints. The price per card is the sum of SMR * 0.6 divided by the count. Of course so commons go for more and some less, but in looking at recent selling trends (like 1965 PSA 7 commons selling for $4-6 on eBay), these are near the top end of the range. Anyway, the report shows (in green) those years and conditions where the per card value is equal or greater than the grading fee (using the PSA bulk rates). I have seen more and more vintage graded cards selling for less than grading fees and I wanted to know where the break-even points were. But I believe it also helps in looking at the relatively realistic selling points as a measure of how to buy effectively. This is not too much different than the analysis that I and others presented before but I like using a picture better.
Notes:
Sorry about not including 1961, my database is screwed up in that year.
The SMR values all come from PSA which I formatted and imported into my database.
I stopped at 1971 even though I have access to the SMR for later years, I don't have the "type" field assigned to each card (defining star, common, semi, hi#, etc) as I do pre-1972.
Below is a report from my database analyzing - for commons only - the cost per card using 60% SMR. These cards are defined as non-stars (not non-HOF) but would include minor and semi-minor stars, as well as high numbers and short prints. The price per card is the sum of SMR * 0.6 divided by the count. Of course so commons go for more and some less, but in looking at recent selling trends (like 1965 PSA 7 commons selling for $4-6 on eBay), these are near the top end of the range. Anyway, the report shows (in green) those years and conditions where the per card value is equal or greater than the grading fee (using the PSA bulk rates). I have seen more and more vintage graded cards selling for less than grading fees and I wanted to know where the break-even points were. But I believe it also helps in looking at the relatively realistic selling points as a measure of how to buy effectively. This is not too much different than the analysis that I and others presented before but I like using a picture better.
Notes:
Sorry about not including 1961, my database is screwed up in that year.
The SMR values all come from PSA which I formatted and imported into my database.
I stopped at 1971 even though I have access to the SMR for later years, I don't have the "type" field assigned to each card (defining star, common, semi, hi#, etc) as I do pre-1972.
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Comments
Good job!
Impressive spreadsheet, I'm sure it will help out a lot of people.
But people need to be careful in interpreting the results along the edge between "worth it" and "not worth it". Because what this spreadsheet does not do (and I am not volunteering to, either) is tell you what the cards would have sold for ungraded. For example, the spreadsheet documents that graded near mint cards from the early 60's and from 1971 sell for more than grading fees; but, those same cards will also sell for $1 or so apiece ungraded (on average, as in the spreadsheet). So, all things considered, it is not "worth it" to have those cards graded.