Grading cards from the 90's?

jswieton

Is there any money in grading and selling PSA 10 HOF’ers from the 90’s? For example, is it worth the cost of grading at $5.00 a card to have a 91 Topps George Brett graded, if the odds are good that it will grade a 10. It seems that Ripkens and Ryan’s sell for a few bucks but are the other Hof’ers worth getting graded?

lsutigers1973

<< <i>For example, is it worth the cost of grading at $5.00 a card to have a 91 Topps George Brett graded if the odds are good that it will grade a 10 >>



I can answer that exact example as soon as the group sub grades pop.

There are quite a few from the 90s that are worth subbing but you need to check the pop report first. Then you have to be absolutely sure they are 10 worthy. PSA 9's of the same cards are worthless.

jswieton

<< <i>

<< <i>For example, is it worth the cost of grading at $5.00 a card to have a 91 Topps George Brett graded if the odds are good that it will grade a 10 >>



I can answer that exact example as soon as the group sub grades pop.

There are quite a few from the 90s that are worth subbing but you need to check the pop report first. Then you have to be absolutely sure they are 10 worthy. PSA 9's of the same cards are worthless. >>



How many psa 10's need to be graded for a card from the 90's to no longer be considered a low pop card? I know there is no one right answer but is there a general consensus for something to be considered low pop?

onefasttalon

I agree with Bill... there are plenty worth-while, but PLENTY that are barely worth the grading fees even in PSA 10 slabs.

Player collector can be your biggest and best customers... Some of the highest selling cards are those you'd NEVER think to submit.
Everyone knows Nolan Ryan, Cal Ripken, and Mark McGwire sell... but not everyone knows that several other lesser known players do too!

Check the pop reports... and you'd better make sure what you're submitting has a shot at a 10, otherwise forgetaboutit!

chaz43

No. chaz

lsutigers1973

<< <i>Player collector can be your biggest and best customers... Some of the highest selling cards are those you'd NEVER think to submit.
Everyone knows Nolan Ryan, Cal Ripken, and Mark McGwire sell... but not everyone knows that several other lesser known players do too! >>



Player collectors will be your ONLY customers. No set registry competition for any base set from the 90s.

Tim Raines is a good one if you are looking for a specific player. There are quite a few Raines registry collectors that fight over low pop base cards.

ElToroLoco

Yes, it's worth grading your 90's cards (PSA viewpoint). My opinion, nope.

saucywombat

I've had several 10's with zero interest @ 9.99 of Frank Thomas, Nolan Ryan and R. Henderson the last couple of weeks on Ebay. POP report is critical in determining potential interest, problem being there is usually a good reason why there is a small population (you're not going to have one either)

lsutigers1973

For the doubters, these are just a few from the last week:

1990 Topps Griffey PSA 10

1990 Topps Ripken PSA 10 - previous one sold for over $110

1991 Studio Will Clark PSA 10 - this one was Roger's

1992 Topps micro Nolan Ryan PSA 10

1993 Finest Ripken PSA 10 - not refractor

1994 Topps gold Nolan Ryan PSA 10 $202

Not even a HOFer 1995 Ultra Alan Trammell PSA 10

Boopotts

<< <i>

<< <i>Player collector can be your biggest and best customers... Some of the highest selling cards are those you'd NEVER think to submit.
Everyone knows Nolan Ryan, Cal Ripken, and Mark McGwire sell... but not everyone knows that several other lesser known players do too! >>



Player collectors will be your ONLY customers. No set registry competition for any base set from the 90s.

Tim Raines is a good one if you are looking for a specific player. There are quite a few Raines registry collectors that fight over low pop base cards. >>



I believe is only true for Raines cards that picture him in an Expo uniform. Anything in White Sox gear is dead.

As far as making money on grading '90's cards, I would tend to side with Chaz-- unless this is something that you spend a lot of time on you aren't going to be able to turn a profit on it. Even checking the pop report won't guarantee success, since you need to know which collectors will upgrade from a 9 to a 10, which won't, and so on. Also, recognize that you probably won't hit more than 50% PSA 10's, and since 9's are worthless this means you need to get about $15 for each PSA 10 just to break even-- and anymore, finding cards that you are sure will sell for $15 in PSA 10 is very difficult.

Your best bet, I think, it to just forget about it. You can profitably grade high dollar insert and parallel cards from the '90's, but for base issues I can almost guarantee that it won't be worth your time.

TomGshotput

If you know what you are doing, there is enough proof that you can make money doing it

But if you know what you are doing, you wouldn't be asking this question

jeffcbay

Yikes...

Beck6

You can profitably grade high dollar insert and parallel cards from the '90's, but for base issues I can almost guarantee that it won't be worth your time

What inserts from the 90's seem to fetch above grading fee prices for 10's other than the 1993 Finest? Can you find them on the pop report and are they in the Master Sets?

jradke4

<< <i>I've had several 10's with zero interest @ 9.99 of Frank Thomas, Nolan Ryan and R. Henderson the last couple of weeks on Ebay. POP report is critical in determining potential interest, problem being there is usually a good reason why there is a small population (you're not going to have one either) >>



as a player set collector i can tell you why they probably didnt sell. i probably have a few of the raw cards that you are trying to sell me (not in this case but play along) as a PSA 10. we both know that the cards themselves arent of much value. lets say that these are 1992 Topps for example. well all could probably be bought for around $1 at most raw (now this is assuming they are not inserts just base cards). so as the collector i have two options wait for psa to run a special at $4.50 or $5 a card, or buy your for roughly twice that much. now we all would like 10's but to be honest we all know that there is not as much of a difference bewteen 9's and 10's from the real grade of the card...after all we all know of case were one day it was deemed a 9 and another day a 10). So since i am a player collector I probably always have the min quant. on hand for the specials, why wouldnt i just submit mine (especially if I have a few to weed through to send in my best one)?

now for the other reason i probably wouldnt pay twice as much for your 10 vs the chance that mine will be a 9. for a card with a weight of 1, its only 1 grade point difference. i can make up for that one with highly weighted cards no problem, even more so for cards that are high weights but low pop (ie serial numbered out of 5 to 10), as not as many of my competition will have those cards let alone graded.

larryallen73

Those auctions LSU posted above are amazing. I have donated several of those cards to Goodwill. Darn it.

Beck6

So here is a more specific example than stated above: Example:

1995 Leaf Cal Ripken Heading for the Hall: 10 have been submitted, with no 10's. I have to assume that no one is sitting on a potential 10 that collects Ripken because the 10 would be fairly valuable. Correct? Or as a player collector do you just assume you have one and one day you will get around to submitting one on a special.

K

As a Ripken collector I have gone throgh my box of Ripkens countless times and have picked out a large amount I want to eventually sub. However I always wait for the specials before I send them in because I'm not a high roller like Don Spence. Now with that being said if someone posts a 10 that is in my "cache" I'll go after it and throw my raw card back in the box. Reason being that I love 10's and frown at 9's and it will cost less to by a sure thing then have to sub multiple cards to get one pop. I definitely don't have the magic eye that can pull a 10 from a group of 9's 100% of the time.

jradke4

<< <i>So here is a more specific example than stated above: Example:

1995 Leaf Cal Ripken Heading for the Hall: 10 have been submitted, with no 10's. I have to assume that no one is sitting on a potential 10 that collects Ripken because the 10 would be fairly valuable. Correct? Or as a player collector do you just assume you have one and one day you will get around to submitting one on a special. >>



how hard is the Heading for the Hall card to find period, would be my first question. sure i might bid on it but i also might not bid past a certain point if i think i have a card with potential at home.

now some will really only take 10's, well if i was one of those than I would bid on it to win. the logic being is that my potential isnt a sure thing. i could always sub it later to try and get some money back. but for many player collectors out there know there are only a number of collectors that pay top dollar. so the longer you wait the more likey the pops of 10's will go up and all the big spenders will have gotten theirs already.

it all depends on the collector. i even love my 7 and 8's that i have. sure i would like all 10's but no one has the money for that. i mean look the favre master set already has over 2200 cards. that is roughly 1/4 of the total out there that could be included in the set.

daddymc

In addition to the players Bill mentioned, Pujols seems to do well. With football cards, Tom Brady seems to do well.