cello vs wax for high grade submissions?

twiley

Hello,

I am in the need of some advice. I have searched the forums but cant find my answer. Maybe some people here can help?

I am in the middle of putting a couple of 1980s topps sets together psa graded.

Of course it will be costly to win the cards via auction on ebay or stores. So I am taking the unopen material approach. I am trying to get the best grades possible PSA 10 or PSA 9. Far as ripping open unopen material I know raks are the cleanest. However for a set or 2 there are no rak boxes or cases available. So my question is... Which would be best for the search of the all mighty psa 10 cello or wax? I read somewhere the estimated odds on psa 10 on vending is 1 per box. So I am not bothering with vending. Any advice on Cello vs Wax and getting cards graded psa 10 from these packs is greatly apprecated.

Thank you,

Tim

julen23

80s graded psa sets?

which years by chance?

i would recommend enjoying them in their raw, naked beauty. you dont' need a psa slab to tell you you have sweet cards my man!

i have tons of '81 & '80 topps if you're building up sets. 3000+ '81 and 5000 +/- '80s.

julen

calaban7

Tim, Rack Rack packs are the best. Wax is the second best , with cello really not so good for grading . Almost all my submissions that graded 10 for my 84 topps have been from rack packs.

Sorry about that elusive 84 psa 10 Ryan. Your day will come . C. S. Lewis once wrote that what a man truely seeks in life he will find. Keep up the good effort on your set .

Darin

I bought some 1975 cello packs hoping some were gradeable. But they were wrapped way too tight and it affected about all the cards in the packs. Almost every card the corners were dinged up. I'll never buy 1975 cellos again. I don't know if they were still wrapped too tight in the 80's but I would guess they were.

Pittfan

I agree with Darin, the 75 cellos I have opened were way to tight and all the cards had bad corners. I had some luck with 82 and 83 cellos only the ones that were loose. Once you go rack you never go back.

twiley

First reply...

I am working on Topps 1982 and 1984

Since my 1984 set has a good start I want to work on 1982. Yeah now the commons might not really be worth the grading slab. In 20 years I or my kids will be glad I did all this...

Second reply...

Thanks for the tip. I will be investing in some 82 wax boxes or a case unless rack boxes or cases show up. And Seriously no worries at all on the 84 ryan I will either win one or get one thru submission eventually. I wont knock myself out over it either

third reply...

Thank you I think I am staying away from cello most definately!!!

jradke4

make sure they are racks and not grocery racks. grocery racks are wrapped as three little cello packs, bad corners in most likelyhood.

ryaneversole

I just got in '84 wax, rack, and vending yesterday. Wax was ok, rack pretty good, vending... horrid. MINT but there was an assortment of tilt and cutting issues.

XanaduNow

Tim,

I'd say your two choices are wax and rack. You might as well as group cellos in with the vending. If you're really interested in getting 10's I would buy racks off Steve Hart at bbcexchange.com. If he doesn't have any racks available at the present moment I would stick around and wait. You're going to be losing at least 2 cards per pack between the wax and gum and usually the racks are actually cheaper per card.

Good luck with your sets.

Arthur

Wabittwax

I've had bad experiences with cellos also but recently I opened some 1987 Topps cellos and the cards were the most gorgeous crisp cards I've ever seen come from a pack. They weren't wrapped too tight.

viking7

Hi,

I opened several cases of 82 Topps in putting together my registry set. I had the best luck with rack then vending, and cello would be third. If you could find a nice vending case that may be the most affordable.
Good luck to you on building the set!

twiley

<< <i>Hi,

I opened several cases of 82 Topps in putting together my registry set. I had the best luck with rack then vending, and cello would be third. If you could find a nice vending case that may be the most affordable.
Good luck to you on building the set! >>



Thank you for the info. Did you try wax? If so you prefered vending over wax?

Thanks for the tip above on the grocery racks. I will avoid them as well.

I will take the advice and hold out for a case of raks from Steve Hart. I bought a case of 84 rack from him awhile ago.

I open one case of 84 rak and already found a ton that I had submitted for the $5 march grading special. Right now I am working on 1982. My goal on 1982 is have all the HOFers in PSA 10 and commons but I wont knock myself out on the commons if I get mint 9s. One thing I have noticed. Over 18,000 ripken rookies submitted. Is it safe to say many people ripped the racks open for the Gem Mint ripken and canned the rest? Will a super high grade set for 1982 be impossible? I notice other key cards like Nolan Ryan card #90 barely any have been submitted vs the ripken rookie. Or is this a bad assumtion on my part?

XanaduNow

I think it's safe to say that there are tons more Ripkens out there, both raw and still in unopened material. If you buy from BBCE you won't have any issues. I've bought unopened rack boxes from Steve in the past and inside there were racks with stars, rc's and HOFers showing so I wouldn't worry about them being searched.

Arthur

jamesryanbell

<< <i>I think it's safe to say that there are tons more Ripkens out there, both raw and still in unopened material. If you buy from BBCE you won't have any issues. I've bought unopened rack boxes from Steve in the past and inside there were racks with stars, rc's and HOFers showing so I wouldn't worry about them being searched.

Arthur >>



That's REALLY good to note. I've heard nothing but good things about him.

viking7

I did better with vending than wax. I bought several cases and plenty of boxes along the way over 5 years
as I worked on the set in high grade. Some cases/boxes produced very few really nice cards but I did get lucky on one case in particular and that kept me moving forward.

I found that it took a combination of grading my own cards, buying from other collectors and using ebay to get complete. Have fun with the set, and if you ever have any questions email me anytime.

twiley

Well count on an email or 2. thank you for the info on 1982. I will hold out for rak cases. I will check out a vending box or 2 of vending to see for my own eyes that vending will produce some psa 10s. maybe in 82 topps baseball vending is better quality then 1984 topps baseball vending. I bought topps 84 vending and the 6 boxes were horrible no 10s and 15% were 9s but not worth grading for the 9 imo. Was worth the lesson for 84 vending.

ryaneversole

<< <i>Well count on an email or 2. thank you for the info on 1982. I will hold out for rak cases. I will check out a vending box or 2 of vending to see for my own eyes that vending will produce some psa 10s. maybe in 82 topps baseball vending is better quality then 1984 topps baseball vending. I bought topps 84 vending and the 6 boxes were horrible no 10s and 15% were 9s but not worth grading for the 9 imo. Was worth the lesson for 84 vending. >>



My '84 vending box must have come from the same batch as yours. Total crap. Yeah - rack seems to be pretty good all around, although I find this concept of "thumbing" to be somewhat bothersome.

Fuzz

I think you may have given up a little quick on the already graded route. I have been picking up a few here and there with even PSA 9 stars at under $3. 10's are more but not that much more. DSL and 4sc I understand set up at shows with piles of very low $ high end cards that have not sold. While unopened is fun, certainly there are no guarentees and the total cost can add up. Add a $5 per card plus shipping and you may be able to make a lot more progress on ebay than you think. Don't give up to soon.
Fuzz