New to PSA & CU Forums!

Gally

Hello everyone!

I'm new to the whole grading and selling part of collecting cards. My grandfather has recently passed and now my father and I are left with tons upon tons of cards. Most are my grandpa's and fathers, and some of the collection I helped put together in years past. They're all mostly baseball, hockey, and football. I'm sure a story similar to mine has already been laid out on these forums multiple times. So I apologize if this sounds like a broken record for some of you. We've already gone ahead and signed up for a PSA Platinum Membership. My only questions are as follows.

1. If I send a card in for a raw grade..ex.) 1984 Steve Young USFL Topps and I expect it to grade as a 9 or more. Do I only pay upfront for the SMR Price Guide value of PSA Grade of 9? And if it grades as 10, do they contact me and quote me a different price in regards to insurance and return shipping it to me?

2. I've noticed some PSA Graded cards will sell for more than $10,000 (even some in the $50,000 range!) on eBay. For the eBay account that I've had for more than 5 years, I'm limited to $10,000 in sales per month, and every sale is affected by a 10% Final Value fee! Losing $1000 out of that sale is a little crazy and I would hope somewhat avoidable if even possible through eBay? Are there ways around this? Would I be limited to that one transaction of $10,000 a month right then and there?

3. I've also noticed the Buy, Sell, and Trading section of these forums. Is that a more reasonable way to sell and buy? And are you still limited by the amount of money that can be sent through PayPal in one transaction? And of course you are not protected and would have to rely on your own researched feedback system of buyers and sellers?

If all or any of my questions are answered I would appreciate it deeply and forever be in debt to whoever answers. Thanks for reading and have a great Labor Day!

MrNearMint

Welcome to the forum! Sorry to hear about your grandpa.



I'm not as knowledgable as many on here but I'll try my best to answer some of your questions. I've never submitted cards to psa so I cannot speak on that. As far as eBay and the selling limit, I believe you can contact eBay and increase your selling limit. However, they may be stipulations such as; having to have sold "x" amount of dollars within a certain period, or having a certain amount of positive feedback etc...



Just FYI, eBay takes 10% of the final value fees and PayPal takes about 3 or 4%. That needs to be taken into consideration when selling. If you're looking to avoid selling fees, you could always post your items here in the Buy, sell, trade forum and accept PayPal friends and family as a payment. From what I understand there is NO fees associated with "friends and family" payments. I'm not sure how much you can receive through PayPal payments, might have to contact PayPal.



Another option could be selling your items on Craigslist or at local card shows in your area.



Fwiw, I started selling a few items here and there within the last year or so and I have absolutely no problem with the fees. eBay provides the largest selling platform in the world, they need there cut too. Just my opinion.

someone will chime in soon and offer some great advice!



Good luck!

HighGradeLegends

Grading fees can add up. Do not send in cards that are not worth the cost of grading or have high risk of missing a grade. A lot of people bag ebay...but it is much cheaper than setting up a brick and mortar store with access to a limited market. Best way to max ebay is high volume and high seller performance. Dont forget about taxes...selling over 20k with 200 plus sales on paypal will get you a 1099 sent to the irs. So make sure you keep good track of all expenses so you can show profit not just revenue.



Lots of good people on this forum. Ask questions.



Also some predators out there. If people msg you asking to cherry pick your stuff...likely ignore.

HighGradeLegends

For grading insurance just mark what you are willing to accept if card is damaged. If you send in a mj rookie raw and it scores a 10, psa will call you to tell you your insured raw card went from 2k to 25k, so you now owe more for insurance. This is a good problem to have. But 99.9% of the time whatever u mark as value never changes.

Batpig

1. Don't worry too much about declared value. It's only for insurance, so just use what you'd be willing to get if the card was lost/damaged. PSA does use it as a rough guideline for service level, but the vast majority of cards I've had graded have been at the bulk ($100 or less) service level, including cards that have come back worth as much as $3000 at the grade they got without PSA contacting me. If you do get a big score or severely undervalue a card, they'll contact you and let you know they have to charge at the higher service level. Chances are you'll be extremely happy to pay it. Also get yourself a jeweler's loupe on Amazon or wherever and start grading your own cards, then comparing them to what PSA is giving you for grades. Be critical of your cards, and compare them to grades on Ebay. This will give you a better idea of what to get graded and what to keep raw.



2. Ebay's fees are actually pretty fair considering. If you want to sell stuff yourself, I suggest starting with smaller value cards - $5 or so raw cards that aren't worth grading, and start working on your feedback and seller ratings. Your goal is to get 100 feedback, no negatives, and shipping stuff out within a day. That will get you the top seller rating, which gets you a 20% discount on Ebay fees, as well as higher ranking in search. Buyers also feel more comfortable buying from top rated sellers. Having said that, I'd highly recommend sending anything worth over $50 to Brent at PWCC to consign. He consistently gets higher selling prices and his fees are reasonable to the point where his prices offset the higher fee you pay him over ebay. Plus he and his staff do all the work. As far as limits go, if you get close or hit your limit, just contact Ebay and they'll raise your limit after asking a few questions such as where you get your cards and if you use your own pictures or stock photos.



3. You can use the buy/sell/trade here, but I'd recommend starting the Ebay/PWCC route. That's just my personal opinion. One thing you can do is list your items on Ebay, and point people to your store on Ebay, but offer a 10% discount off of those prices if they pay using Paypal gift (friends and family) and buy directly. Just don't forget to remove your Ebay listing!



Good luck!