your thoughts on PSA grading packs

flatfoot816

Now that it is a certainty, wondering what your thoughts are on PSA grading packs. For instance:

1. Will many people send in GAI packs to crossover?

2. Will GAI packs continue to sell, and if so, will the prices drop off even more tha they have?

3. Will PSA prices quickly overtake the price of the same pack in a GAI holder?

4. Your general thoughts on this subject

As always, great to read comments of enthusiastic, astute collectors.

gregmo32

I am glad they are getting involved. I will definitely send in some of my vintage packs for grading right away (though is it true they won't grade the oversized basketball packs as of yet?). And I have a feeling that PSA will quickly become the standard for pack grading and that its prices will be the same as GAI immediately. And those prices will increase more than GAI packs would have if they were the only company in the market. All my opinion, of course...

Griffins

1. Yes, IMO the holder is much better, both in terms of protecting the pack and in eye appeal

2. Yes, but I believe the prices will drop. The '58 Cello/ Grocery cello debacle really made prices drop, as confidence was eroded. That and packs being lost.

3. Yes, for the reasons above, and inclusion of PSA graded packs in the registry. Look what the registry did to '62 Don Landrums, '65 Charlie Smiths and '61 Joe Gibbons.

4. Competition is good for collectors. I've spoken to a lot of people that won't submit packs to GAI for a number of reasons. I"m sure they will be some that won't submit to PSA, but having 2 companies gives a bit of a choice. IMO PSA got the best guy for the job, and hopefully they will keep him for a good while. I"m disappointed that they are only able to do standard size packs at this point, and was told they may never do oversize packs, but 2 years ago they said they would never grade packs, so I"m optimistic.
I am looking forward to seeing a pop report once enough of a sample have been graded.
Downside of PSA pack grading? Besides the holder not fitting bigger packs, they could well be pricing the service too high for the marketplace. And not being able to do crossovers without breaking the pack out is a bit risky. Hopefully this will see the end of the GAI prejudice on crossovers though, as automatically rejecting anything in a GAI holder would kill their (PSA's) market share.

Morgoth

I think it would be funny if PSA started rejecting alot of vintage packs for being tampered with. Alot of vintage packs that were graded by GAI probably were sold originally by Steve Hart. This may allow easier crossovers because of who is doing the authenticating.

gregmo32

If I remember correctly, it took several years before PSA started grading Tall Boy cards as well...

TheCARDKid

Initially, PSA is probably going to have the benefit of the doubt of being better than GAI.

What people really care about of course is how much are my packs worth. If PSA gets alot of key packs graded early, and their auction results are higher than GAI, they'll have a nice advantage in the market.

I'm very curious to see how much wax is out there. How many '59 Topps nickel packs are left? Are there any Goudey packs left? Anything pre '68 Hockey would be exciting to see.

Competition will be great. It should make both companies better. Less debacles like '58 Topps cello, and more competitive grading.

onegaucho

1. Will many people send in GAI packs to crossover?
YES - at the National, even for the short time that I was there, I saw several people (dealers included) buy up GAI packs to specifically crossover, primarily for the purposes of the PSA registry. Ditto the comments above from Griffins.

2. Will GAI packs continue to sell, and if so, will the prices drop off even more tha they have?
Drop will probably continue due to the fiascos that have arisen in recent months. It's definitely deterred me from buying ANY packs in a GAI holder since.

3. Will PSA prices quickly overtake the price of the same pack in a GAI holder?
Absolutely and I would attribute most of it to the existence of the registry.

4. Your general thoughts on this subject
Hopefully PSA does it right this time. Hopefully they can invest a little bit of money and mold proper cases for packs of varying sizes. There's nothing more annoying that getting cards sealed in mylar sleeves and have them bounce around like pinballs. As much as I like collecting PSA cards, I wish I had started collecting SGC sets simply b/c of the eye appeal of their black-backed holders.

grote15

I believe there will be an initial frenzy of bidding on PSA graded packs when they first hit the ebay marketplace, with auction prices realizing a significant premium over GAI graded packs, but that those prices will level off over time. I just don't think that many collectors of unopened material will bother to crossover their GAI packs to PSA, especially if PSA requires the packs to be submitted "raw". The PSA registry set will undoubtedly fuel a lot of aggressive bidding, especially at first, but the truth is that collecting unopened material is a much smaller niche in the market than PSA card collecting (if you took a poll on these boards, I'd bet most collectors prefer opening packs than to preserving them), and I imagine you will need only one pack from each year to complete your registry set (instead of hundreds of cards from each year for card collectors). I believe that was the main reason why PSA had declined to enter the pack grading business until now. I'm sure that one of the main reasons that PSA even decided to start grading packs was because GAI failed time and time again to corner the market due to poor business decisions and even worse customer service. That said, however, there are a large number of very beautiful and completely authentic packs in GAI holders and to experienced collectors of unopened material that will always be more important than which holder the pack is in. If you know your material is unopened and authentic, it shouldn't matter to you if it's even graded or not, unless you plan to sell, as many "raw" packs on ebay these days are reseals, and most experienced buyers (those willing to pony up the big bucks) are understandedly skeptical about purchasing ungraded material from most sellers on ebay.

ldferg

i just noticed a psa 7 1986 topps wax pack as being graded...shows in the pop reports. test maybe?

Griffins

I think it is one of the sample packs. They had 3 or 4 holdered packs, all graded 7. I asked if that was the correct grade since it looked like there was a bit of difference between them, and was told that was a default grade for the samples, and not reality.

packCollector

what will the benefit of cross over be if they will always remove the pack from the holder? this doesn't make a lot of sense to me . if that is the case then just crack it out yourself . not so sure how many will cross over , collectors will probably not , anyone looking to sell maybe or anything not too risky. I have some beautiful 50's packs in gai holders , not going to risk them getting cut out and then getting told that they won;t authenticate them. they look great to me the way they are. also the crossover will be tricky as I have confidence in the authenticity of most things not 58 and not grocery in a gai holder, I have ZERO confidence in the grades that GAI assigns. most of the 8's in GAI holders that I have owned have been nicer than the 9's

packCollector

oh yeah, I don;t submit to gai anymore , I have stuff waiting to go to psa , I think psa prices will have an initial spike and I think that the psa prices will stabilize the gai prices from dropping further by bringing in more collectors and increasing knowledge of the niche and of the 2 companies. psa will probably sell for a premium as well since they will just do it better and provide exceptional service

transparent

Does anyone have an estimate on what pack grading might cost? Anyone know what GAI charges?

flatfoot816

Here is a link to GAI's pricing for grading packs.

http://www.globalauthentication.net/pricing/servicecenter.asp[/L]

PSA has said that it will charge from $10-$100 depending on the value of the pack. Seems out of whack, so wait to see what transpires with them.

julen23

i am glad psa is getting their hats in the mix.

i predict gai will suffer more than profit from psa joining into this area of sports collectibles arena.

tgif

julen

Wabittwax

<< <i>i just noticed a psa 7 1986 topps wax pack as being graded...shows in the pop reports. test maybe? >>



Wow, I hope that baby hits Ebay, I can't wait to get my hands on that. I'm gonna get my esnipe ready and leave my common sense at the door!

grote15

Wow, I hope that baby hits Ebay, I can't wait to get my hands on that. I'm gonna get my esnipe ready and leave my common sense at the door!