Set registry composition, weight rating?

akuracy503

New to the registry world and have begun to put together my own set, noticed some cards have more value or "weight" in a rating system PSA uses.

Could someone explain the technical side of how overall rating is done....what is the calculation behind percent of set completed vs average of "weight" rating or actual grades.

What are some tips to get ahead of the rankings....

Strategically purchasing cards based on weight?
How does actual grade come into play vs weight?
Is it a must to purchase cards with more "weight" value in higher grades?
There seems to be a definite purchase value in obtaining those affordable cards with higher weight ratings.

Seems simple in a sense but I'm sure there is a strategy involved with putting together a registry set.

Would appreciate your feedback in this exciting endeavor.

Sportsamerica

The weight is use to value the "harder" "better" cards more weight in calculating the overall grade of the set. So if you would buy all of the commons in higher grades, and then get the "stars" in lower, the stars will lower the overall grade of the set since they will have more weight.

Kind of think of it this way... You buy EX graded 1952 Topps, but then get the Mantle in Poor.. When selling the set you would list as overall VG because the Mantle is worth more in the 52 set..

Strategically purchasing cards based on weight -- Not an issue, since at end of the set, no difference
Is it a must to purchase cards with more weight value in higher grades? -- Yes, the higher the grade the better off you are in the registry game.

akuracy503

Thanks for the feedback, so essentially the weight rating won't matter once a set is %100 complete as it's all about the overall grade.

What mainly drives my questions were the fact that most of the registry top 10-20 is only %50 or less complete where I saw that strategically adding items with high weight rating multiplied with grade can be the driving force of climbing the ranks.....vs focusing on spending high $$ on name cards in the set, essentially there are some high value items to be had where it won't break the bank.

Just rambling on my observations for competing in the registry.

Should I worry so much about obtaining those items with favorable weight rating?
Or just worry about collecting the set as a whole first....regardless of weight rating.

Weight rating really comes into play when you have a lot of participants with %10-%50 complete sets.

PowderedH2O

Lets say you are collecting the 1963 Cincinnati Reds team set. The Pete Rose is BY FAR the most valuable card in that set. It gets a rating of 10.00 whereas commons in the low numbers would be a 1.00. Other cards would fall somewhere in the middle (Frank Robinson, tough high numbers, etc...). The person that has the Rose but is missing three cards and another person that is also missing three cards would have the same percentage of cards. But the person with the weighting (the Rose) would have his card equal to ten commons, so if the PSA grades were the same average, the higher weighted set would have a bigger score. It basically rewards you for going after the better cards. It can also hurt you for average, if for example using the above, you had all 8's, but your Rose was a 4. It would bring your overall average score down considerably (But not your cumulative rating, as having a 4 Rose is better than having no Rose at all). I think it's fair for the most part (although how a 52 Topps Mantle is only worth 10 commons is beyond me).

TheVon

The set registry also has a "what if?" feature that allows you to select each card in the set and a grade and it shows you how that would effect your set's rating. It can be a fun tool to play around with.

Sportsamerica

Also will give you pop reports of cards in that grade...

PSASAP

I'd like to see a real numbers geek come up with a true weighting system that took into account the pops for each card. That would be very interesting.

skilow

Is there a way to get the "weights" to accurately reflect the composition of the set?
They told me ebay sales, well this card only sold once on ebay in the past year and only has a 1.5 weight. (My issue is with a 1982 and 1983 minor league issues of a player who retired within the past 10 years)

Thanks for any help.