Which is the best way to get Gem Mint cards from the '80s

sportscardtheory

Is it wax, cello, rack or vending?

ThoseBackPages

already slabbed

sportscardtheory

<< <i>already slabbed >>



I never see the cards I'm looking for, so I would like to attempt some subs.

bighurt2000

Bradd,
I don't buy much wax, cello, rack or vending from the 80's but I haven't had much lucky with
vending baseball cards most were for the most part off center. Also some of the years Topps
produced rack boxes from the 80's cards were in sequence in the racks packs so I would only
buy sealed cases for those years.

If you can be more specific on what sport, brand, and year your intrested in I know someone here
can give you the answer your looking for.

James

K

rack packs

burke23

Depending on the card issue - ebay lots? Most cost effective, anyway.

yankeeno7

If you want fresh cards at the lowest price, vending is the way to go. If you are more particular, want a better shots at hitting some 10s, and money is not so much an issue, then I would go in this order.....rack packs, wax packs, cello packs.

sportscardtheory

So I take it rack packs are the best way to go for 1980-1991 Topps?

Goldlabels

Most vending I've bought either have centering or surface issues. I just opened up some rack boxes from 1986 Topps and they came out really nice. Overall it's a crap shot

UlyssesExtravaganza

<< <i>already slabbed >>



Megaagreed. When you realize how much you are paying to buy the cards in packs, submit them for grading, write off the bad grades or resubmit, pay to ship it there and back, insure it, it's easier just to find the guy (or gal) who got the card you want and pay them for it. You can sometimes get the card you want at less than the grading cost or a handful of dollars over. Depends on the set though. People like 4SC or others who buy cards in bulk, can open a gazillion boxes and cases and take advantage of that bulk submission rate and pass it on to you.

But if you're set on opening them yourself, which I can understand because it's supposed to be fun:

Wax-Feel like it holds the card best but you often have to write off the gum card and the cards the wax card.
Vending-Gave up on it. Kind of like a lottery ticket. You can hit it big or get a brick with a ding and 500 bad cards.
Cello-don't like them but it may have gotten better in the 80s. 70s were too tight sometimes and warped the cards.
Racks-not a big fan of how they can slide around in there but don't have any proof that it makes any difference.

alnavman

It's great to be able to open a pack/rack/cello/box or whatever, submit to PSA, have the anticipation waiting for the grades to post and then getting them back but I must also agree that if you only want GEM MINT then buying them that way already graded is probably the best option.

Beck6

I have actually had alot of success with factory sets pulling psa 10's. I pulled two Griffey's out of a bowman factory set and a fleer factory set and both received 10's. Rack packs would be my best results after that. Cello probably the worst.

Reljac

<< <i>I have actually had alot of success with factory sets pulling psa 10's. I pulled two Griffey's out of a bowman factory set and a fleer factory set and both received 10's. Rack packs would be my best results after that. Cello probably the worst. >>



I agree with this.

If you want a certain card in a certain grade, you probably stand your best chance with:
Already slabbed
Factory-sealed Set
Rack
Wax
Cello
Vending

gumbyfan

I've had some mixed luck on sportlots.com and from beckett stores. I'd say that of the cards I've purchased via those routes for the purposes of submitting, I sent in about 25% of them. Of the ones I've submitted, I'd say 75-80% were 9's or 10's.

Other than one instance, I've had terrible luck on ebay lots, though. I bought a lot of 100 "mint or better" 1979 Topps Jim Gantner cards a while back. There was nothing higher than an 8 in the mix...with the vast majority in the 6-7 range. While a 79 Topps card doesn't fall in your 80-91 range, I figured it was close enough to note. Other lots of single cards weren't much better.

The one good instance on ebay was a lot of ~200 Paul Molitor cards of which ~70 were worth submitting. I sent in 25 of them and got one 8 and the rest were 9's & 10's...mostly 10's. EagleEyeKid here on the boards helped me out on that lot...if it wasn't for him I would've missed it!

MCMLVTopps

I'll go along with buying factory sealed sets, they're relatively cheap. Besides, if you are focusing on just one or two teams, you can always create other team sets to sell and offset initial outlay.

The slabbed idea is really the ideal way to go, assuming you can find what you want. The card is already in the holder and you didn't have to submit again and again and again to obtain the Gem Mint 10 slab, not to mention mailing costs both ways and the time to wait to see if you got the grade. I would highly recommend getting a subscription to Vintage Card Prices.com aka as VCP on the boards. This will allow you to set up the exact cards you are seeking in PSA 10, or most other grading companies...you will receive an email notification when the card is up on eBay. I have used VCP for quite some time and am very pleased with the service. I have several sets in the PSA Registry and have most of them listed in my VCP account seeking upgrades to certain cards....works like a champ!! It ain't cheap, but it will save you untold hours of searching listings.

vladguerrero

time machine

Boopotts

<< <i>

<< <i>already slabbed >>



Megaagreed. When you realize how much you are paying to buy the cards in packs, submit them for grading, write off the bad grades or resubmit, pay to ship it there and back, insure it, it's easier just to find the guy (or gal) who got the card you want and pay them for it. You can sometimes get the card you want at less than the grading cost or a handful of dollars over. Depends on the set though. People like 4SC or others who buy cards in bulk, can open a gazillion boxes and cases and take advantage of that bulk submission rate and pass it on to you.

But if you're set on opening them yourself, which I can understand because it's supposed to be fun:

Wax-Feel like it holds the card best but you often have to write off the gum card and the cards the wax card.
Vending-Gave up on it. Kind of like a lottery ticket. You can hit it big or get a brick with a ding and 500 bad cards.
Cello-don't like them but it may have gotten better in the 80s. 70s were too tight sometimes and warped the cards.
Racks-not a big fan of how they can slide around in there but don't have any proof that it makes any difference. >>



The other issue with finding your own cards is the sheer time it takes to break wax. For me at least that's the worst part of finding submittable cards. I try to get my six year old son to do the busting, but his enthusiasm comes and goes. I've got boxes and boxes of stuff in the basement that I'm sure contain some great cards, but when will I find time to break them?

The factory set idea is a great one, and that's the route I go whenever possible. You can go through 800 cards from a factory set in 10 minutes, whereas it might take you 25 minutes to go through the same number of cards if you're breaking wax. That doesn't sound like much, but if you're going to go through 50000 cards or so it can add up to an entire day of your life that you can now allocate to some other, more entertaining purpose.

jamesgotpoorman

I have 125+ Psa 9 in 1980 that I am looking to off load. Pm me who you are looking for.

UlyssesExtravaganza

Care to disclose what you're trying to score? I'm kind of curious. One other footnote on getting PSA 10s, if they have any value in a PSA 10 and you can't find them, it's probably they are unbelievably difficult to get by buying some boxes and crossing your fingers because if there's any market for them people with very deep pockets have tried it and had little success. They may have even sold the crummy o/c and dinged copies in a lot to a naive fool like me a couple years ago who was just learning how things worked. Patience can suck but it is another option.

Planemonkey

I found a guy who just opened the packs and put them in card boxes, then some years later he removed the stars and main rookies. What I found is the centering is brutal on a lot of the issues from the 80's. I has much happier finding that out at $5 per 1000-1500 cards compared to the cost of unopened. It is still frustrating looking for gems for example I found only 23 really nice ones out of 1500 83 topps mostly due to centering.

SDavid

Well centered psa 9's.

sportscardtheory

I'm mostly looking to spend little and try for some low-pop Gem superstars from 1980-1991 Topps. I have a list of all the most popular guys with pops under 25 that I would like to do just for fun. 1980, 1981, 1986 and 1988 seem like a good years for some low-pop Gems and the packs don't sell for all that much. Even the 1980 packs are moderately priced for containing the Henderson.

CNote

POP 1 PSA 10 '80 Topps Shane Rawley sold for $100+ this morning. There's money to be made on non superstars too....

Planemonkey

exactly david

jeffcbay

The problem with gunning for the common in PSA 10 is the huge risk/reward. Unless you land a PSA 10, you're screwed.

lsutigers1973

<< <i>I'm mostly looking to spend little and try for some low-pop Gem superstars from 1980-1991 Topps. >>



Been doing that for years with moderate success.




<< <i>1980, 1981, 1986 and 1988 seem like a good years for some low-pop Gems >>



There is a reason for that. PSA 10's of any non-HOF'er from 1980 often only sell for slightly more than the grading fees. Plus, your chances are slim of finding an entire unopened box with nice centering.

1981 Topps registry competition died last year. The last HOF'er to pop his PSA 10 cherry was Reggie Jackson and even it only sold for a little over $500. I probably spent about $2k over 3 months chasing the Reggie PSA 10. Plus, for some reason, PSA is super tough on 1981 Topps. Only one I would chase would be Raines rookie.

1986 is well documented here. Poor card stock and no quality control at Topps in the mid to late 80's. With the exception of Sandberg and maybe Ryan, nothing really to chase. The Mets and Red Sox players were hot for a while but has also died down lately.

1988 Topps is worse than 86. Even crappier card stock. With the exception of Ripken, absolutely nothing worth chasing.

CNote

I encourage people to chase Seattle Mariners commons from the 80s. They are highly sought after.....by me

heh

UlyssesExtravaganza

<< <i>I'm mostly looking to spend little and try for some low-pop Gem superstars from 1980-1991 Topps. I have a list of all the most popular guys with pops under 25 that I would like to do just for fun. 1980, 1981, 1986 and 1988 seem like a good years for some low-pop Gems and the packs don't sell for all that much. Even the 1980 packs are moderately priced for containing the Henderson. >>



I actually will disagree on that comment about the 1980s being moderately priced. That's the set I've been working on for the past couple of years. I've looked through a couple boxes (which are about $330) and some vending which are about $200. I love the set and they are some great cards but if you do a review of the numbers, it's easier to buy them already slabbed. Which I just did an hour ago. Ha! Only about 540 more to go. If you had the slightest chance of pulling a PSA 10 Henderson, then great price. But there are only about 10 of them out of about 10,000 submissions. And how many complete duds sitting on the sidelines that weren't worth submitting. And how many of those 10s are even quality. You can find a thread on here talking about the one 10 out there now that looks like an 8 or 9. I submitted about four and got 2 8s and 2 7s. I submitted maybe five Scott/Oroscos and got a 9 and a bunch of 8s. Rose, Brett, Ozzie, etc. 8s and 9s. Finally got a low POP Orioles Rookies and that's the only 10 I've gotten from 1980s packs or vending boxes. I may have some more of them but if I can get them for 10-15 dollars, it's not worth the money to submit them until a $2.25 special comes along. Of course, it's been great fun. I know somebody who bought a bunch of 81 vending and said it was the worst money he's ever spent. Those cards are usually in terrible shape. For a fun ripping and submitting project that doesn't kill your wallet and leave you disappointed, I think 86 and 88 make good sense.

UlyssesExtravaganza

"1988 Topps is worse than 86. Even crappier card stock. With the exception of Ripken, absolutely nothing worth chasing. "

You mean nobody wants an Al Leiter rookie anymore?

UlyssesExtravaganza

<< <i>POP 1 PSA 10 '80 Topps Shane Rawley sold for $100+ this morning. There's money to be made on non superstars too.... >>



True but you can get yourself into trouble thinking you're going to be the one to find it. 4SC has probably gone through ten to twenty cases to get that one. If anyone knows how many tens of thousands of packs they have opened, I'd love to know.

Beck6

<< <i>

<< <i>I'm mostly looking to spend little and try for some low-pop Gem superstars from 1980-1991 Topps. >>



1988 Topps is worse than 86. Even crappier card stock. With the exception of Ripken, absolutely nothing worth chasing. >>



I totally agree on the 1988's. I just opened a case of 1988 topps rack packs and the centering is awful. They must have printed them on recycled toilet paper because the corners are really soft. I love that set for some reason though.

ThoseBackPages

This thread has been very interesting for me.

i have a similar situation as the OP. i collect 500 club members topps graded cards (any card in a topps set featuring a member, ie All Star Card, League Leader, etc)
and im getting to the point where the ones that i need are either expensive (Aaron RC, Mathews RC, etc), or simply either never get listed on ebay or do not
exist (1999 Thome, 1991 Sheffield, etc)

for the later cards, im going to have to sub them myself and ive thought about the bust and sub route.

jmmiller777

You can find just about anything you want through the PSA dealers ojn this site or the bay. If you are trying to find the mother lode by opening up boxes, good luck. I recently opened up 2 out of three 1983 wax boxes I have had stashed with little success several years ago. Personally, I can't tell the difference between an 8 or a 10 most of the time. I had picked a couple of dozen for grading and only 4 came back 10's. Bottom line is that my last 83 box is worth more "as is" than trying to find those key cards in absolute perfect shape. The whole idea really turned me off to personally grading. Most of my 400,000 plus cards went from pack to storage and are in at least ex+ to mnt (at least in my eyes), but the graders see things much differently under those 30 power magnifyers. God forbide if a stray piece of material extends from the card stock. Not bitter, just saying...

PS, I also collect 500 club members.