1984 Donruss Factory Sets & PSA 10's ???

al032184

I have a few of these still in the factory sealed plastic. Is it worth it to open them and look for 10's, or is it better to just sell them as sealed sets?

Boopotts

I like to think of it this way; if it were profitable to crack them then there wouldn't be any available at the current market price ($60 or so).

al032184

I didn't even look at the market price, I figured they were about $100.

Dpeck100

I have a broken factory set with the stars removed and I could only make it through the first 80 cards or so looking for 10's. If you have time, patience, and a good eye for cards break that baby and look for some 10's.


The bottom line is these cards have awful centering so good luck. I saw the first batch of cards with brutal centering and gave up.

cpamike

I just recently picked up a 1984 Donruss Factory Sealed Set for only $80 so you might be better off going for some PSA 10's.

If you decide to sell any, let me know as I have 2 sons and would like to pick up another set.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

al032184

I am more worried about the effect of the cello wrap on the corners. I have opened a few wax boxes and know of the headache you get looking for well centered examples.

hammered

6 months ago, it was more profitable to break factory sets. But a couple big players in the PSA 10 market currently have most of the cards they need, so the market has dropped quite a bit for 84 Donruss. The factory sets do have the Steele Diamond Kings, but they are so tough to find centered that it's almost not worth opening a set. That said, there are still about 30 or so cards that if graded 10, should sell for more than the cost of the set, in some cases far more:

Durham DK Steele
Clark DK Steele
Dravecky DK Steele
Sutter DK Steele
Parrish DK Steele
Young DK Steele
Murray DK Steele
Schmidt DK Steele
Guerrero DK Steele
Checklist DK Steele

Dunbar
Stenhouse 29 on back
Darling 30 on back
Gagne
Fuentes
Oglivie
Rozema
Horner
Chambliss
Swan
Brusstar
Francona
Slaton
Ashby
Law
McGraw
Torrez
Garrelts
Collins

Frankly, getting one of these in a 10 would be pretty good for a factory set.

As for the factory corners, it seems PSA makes an allowance for this when grading and won't downgrade the card unless the rounding caused by the cellophane wrapper is more severe than normal.

RookieWax

<< <i>As for the factory corners, it seems PSA makes an allowance for this when grading and won't downgrade the card unless the rounding caused by the cellophane wrapper is more severe than normal. >>



Now here is something that just doesn't seem right. Older cards are sometimes tough to find in nice condition for many varying reasons, but none of them should change the grading standards for a specific set, card, brand or type of packaging. A card graded a 10 should have to meet the same standards as any other 10, same with a 9 and so on down. The fact that 1970s OPC cards get graded differently than Topps cards from the same era is an example of this. There are some really ugly looking OPC cards in 9 and 10 holders. I know the quality control was terrible on those OPC cards, but the same can be said for many Topps cards from the 1970s. The 1975 Topps cards are very tough to find in high grade. Does PSA lower their standards due to this fact? NO... in fact for some reason they UP their standards for those cards. There should be consistency across the board....period.

miconelegacy

I can't imagine there is an allowance when grading for rounded corners no matter what year, card, or brand it is.

Edit: unless the card comes with rounded corners, ie: topps game etc.

Dpeck100

The Wrestling All Stars came packaged just like the 84 Donruss and with an even tighter seal and there is certainly no allowance for any damage to the corners.

mcadams

<< <i>

<< <i>As for the factory corners, it seems PSA makes an allowance for this when grading and won't downgrade the card unless the rounding caused by the cellophane wrapper is more severe than normal. >>



Now here is something that just doesn't seem right. Older cards are sometimes tough to find in nice condition for many varying reasons, but none of them should change the grading standards for a specific set, card, brand or type of packaging. A card graded a 10 should have to meet the same standards as any other 10, same with a 9 and so on down. The fact that 1970s OPC cards get graded differently than Topps cards from the same era is an example of this. There are some really ugly looking OPC cards in 9 and 10 holders. I know the quality control was terrible on those OPC cards, but the same can be said for many Topps cards from the 1970s. The 1975 Topps cards are very tough to find in high grade. Does PSA lower their standards due to this fact? NO... in fact for some reason they UP their standards for those cards. There should be consistency across the board....period. >>



+1. This is a problem for PSA that will need to be addressed at some point. No one like inconsistency. I have always criticized the prices that some OPC cards fetch in the market (including the Gretzsky RC that Rick doesn't own). A "rough cut" to many collectors just looks like excessive chipping that PSA chooses to ignore.

hammered

"Rounded" corners might not be the word I'm looking for. "Factory" corners is probably better. It's not that they are rounded, but they are noticeably less sharp than the same Donruss cards that come out of wax packs. I'm not sure if it is due to the wrapping or if they are just cut differently.
Sometimes when a brand/year of card overwhelmingly comes out of factory packaging looking a certain way, PSA does not view it as a flaw or defect. They consider the "less than sharp" factory corners the way they were made by Donruss. Allowance for the OPC rough cuts is a good comparison.
I recall discussions years ago about '89 Donruss Griffey rookies that came from factory sets. And I believe the consensus even back then is that PSA does not downgrade factory corners. PSA (and BGS too, by the way) did not downgrade Griffey factory rookies or his Traded rookie or his Baseball's Best rookie (which are all wrapped in cellophane blocks).

Dpeck your wrestling cards may actually experience damage due to the tight wrapping, and in that case they should be downgraded. In Donruss factory sets, I've found at times the cards on the ends of the cellophane blocks are more prone to actual damage due to the wrapping. And in those cases they would be downgraded.

Dpeck100

The reason the Andre The Giant card is so tough in high grade is it is the first card in a very tight cellophane block. The same holds true with the Rick Martel and Superstar Bill Graham.

The card that is the most damaged is Matt Borne who later morphed into Doink The Clown and is the back card in set three.

They certainly have made no adjustments for corners up to this point and in all honesty I hope they don't now that I have so many already graded.