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2x Lou Brock Rookie #387 (pictures) need help with grade please?
Luke1989
Posts: 136 ✭✭
So i was going through my dads cards (he gave me) and i come across a Lour Brock rookie card... it is off center kindof faded decent corners... i was like well thats ok.
I pull it out of the sleeve and find another Lou Brock Rookie card... that is pretty well centered. the corners pretty decent and little fading.
Please i am new to grading cards myself and let me give it a shot here the first Lou Brock i would grade the first lou brock a PSA 5
the second lou brock i would grade a 7-7.5?
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There appears to be a big crease in the first one. I'd say 3OC.
The corners and print marks are a problem in the second one. I'd say 5.
Sorry for the let down but I have had PSA grade a number of cards in my time. What I do sometimes is check ebay listings and look at the same card and then look at all the different grades for that card and see where your's slots in.
1975 Topps Registry Set "Scott's 75 Topps Set"
Nice cards
The first would grade to low for you to make sense of getting it graded.
The second is worth it. Looking at about a PSA 5
PSA has a section on the website under grading standards that has pictures and associated grade.
Good luck
1948-76 Topps FB Sets
FB & BB HOF Player sets
1948-1993 NY Yankee Team Sets
Nice cards! You are going to find that very few cards from the 1960's (with the exception of Mantle, Clemente and a couple others) are going to be valuable in this condition.
Card #1 no reason to grade, Card #2 should get around a 5, maybe a 6. To get a 7, corners have to be better. Both top and bottom corners on the left are "soft".
Also hold the card up under a bright light (bright sun is best) until the angle of the card creates a sort of "glare". Look from the side as opposed to looking down on the card. This will show you if there are any hard to see surface imperfections or light creases/wrinkles. These will kill the grade.
PSA grades this year very harshly because of the dark borders, the same with 1971, 1975 and the bottoms of 1963's. Wear shows up on cards like this.
Playing the grading game can be frustrating, but you have what looks like a great way to have fun if you don't take it too seriously.
Check out the link to see how PSA does it.
https://www.psacard.com/resources/gradingstandards/
Thanks for sharing!
I'm not seeing a PSA 5 on the second card. More like a 4.
Why is it so low. I am looking at the card and see the corners are no crisp there is that marking on the from left edge. But the image is pretty darn centered and so is the back. It still has a gloss to the card when holding it. And there is minor checking on the edges
As suggested earlier, I suggest looking at ebay auctions for other 1962 topps PSA 4's and 5's and also 7's and 7.5's and compare with yours and see which category you believe yours is.
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A good suggestion given to me upon my return in regards to grading cards, is pretend it's not yours. Pretend you're the buyer. Remove the bias and in fact turn it the other way...against you. You'll tend to find more fault in the cards you're viewing and get a more accurate idea of the grade/value.
Remember, graders have no emotional connection to your cards .
Also, just because a card is technically a 5, some flaws are perfectly fine for certain buyers and 5s can present like 7s. Or even 2s like 6s if you read LOTSOS thread on the 66 Orr...a gorgeous technical 2 that went for 6 money.
Overall, you've inherited a great collection of stuff. I wish my dads cards had been handed down. Enjoy what you've got, and don't worry too much about grades. You've essentially got nothing into it, but can surely get something out of it if you want.
The board can help you ID what to send and what to keep raw. But understanding your intentions would be helpful. Keeping/Selling/Combo?
As far as centering goes the 2nd one is pretty nice.
I think what they are telling you is to just sell it raw (ungraded) if you plan to sell these. Most cards in this condition don't warrant a grading unless you are keeping for safety because it will not increase sales value and actually decrease your net amount you receive because of expenses to grade. I don't believe anyone here is telling you its worthless, and I don't own a Lou Brock so any rookie is a good rookie IMO!
I am looking to keep the cards (MAYBE) sell a few if they are valuable enough so i can use the money to maybe finish a set.
I also want to preserve them all. I just bought some 9 pocket sleeves to replace the old sheets.
i have a post going that i am continuing to update cards that are rookies or HOF's to see if any jump out to people and say to grade them or they are in good condition.
What is a good guide that shows many examples? And explains each factor well
The one on the PSA website just isn't doing it for me.
Your best bet is to search for the card in any grade on ebay and go by completed sales to determine if a PSA 4 is worth grading or only 7+ as an example. I think it will depend on what you want to get out of each card also, but it seems you are looking for the most money quickly so doing what you are doing by scanning and showing and also looking at completed sales on ebay to gauge your cards vs that one is the best bet.
Great. You largely want to keep most, and sell some. That's what I'd do too. My thoughts would be to keep what you want in a raw bindered collection and maybe even add to it, should you get the bug. Maybe sub a few personal cards too.
Take the key HOFers in decent grades (or commons in high grades) and sub them as they'll likely be more liquid or at least easier to put a $ value on. Most if not all will be able to go in on the $7 bulk rate it you piggyback with someone doing a 100+ submission. You could surely sell them raw but that's a little tougher unless you sell a lot of stuff, plus you won't have anything into them except grading fees.
Keep posting pics, and you'll get this figured out with help from the group.
Good luck
You could also go to the set registery for a certain year and look at someone's set who has posted images and compare that way!!
oh yes thank you.
I would guess most don't post scans of lower grade cards unless stars, but could be an avenue.
Look at 1950's -1960's stuff, not all 9's and 10's.
I never said it was, but looking through the 1962 Topps - Basic (since we're on the topic of the Lou Brock RC) registry, only 19 of 93 participants have any pics uploaded. A quick perusal of a few:
100% completion - exactly one scan uploaded, front only
100% completion - all fronts scanned, all PSA 7-9
100% completion - fronts & backs scanned, all PSA 7 or 8
97% completion - exactly one scan uploaded, front only
This would be a pretty tedious way to get an idea of grading standards.
It would be more efficient to go to eBay and type in 'PSA 4' as an example or better yet PWCC active or completed listings (since you don't have to worry about variations in scan quality) and pick a grade to study.
thank you I will check it out tonight.
I think my plans may move into selling the doubles of all my cards. sell all non topps cards and try to begin completing some sets.
My dad only had a few fleer cards and like 500 post cereal cards (are these even worth trying to sell?)
Hiya Luke
PSA web has good descriptions with examples of each grade.
LINK.
"Sample" from the page:
So, as you see. They give the detailed description of the grade AND a sample of the respective grade.
When I got into collecting - 30 yrs ago - I spend all kinds of time "trying" to learn to grade a card. Very subjective.
Plus, how they're viewed has definitely changed.
A "dealer grade" of PSA 8 - raw - from 1990 - would get an "actual" grade today from PSA of a 6 IMO.
the thing I need more of a description of is this centering 70/30 and back 90/10 what do those mean?
Check this out: https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/897961/a-guide-to-centering#latest
A few common issues and the max full grade you could possibly expect:
pinhole - 1
paper loss - 2
crease - 3
spider wrinkle (front of card) - 5
spider wrinkle (back of card) - 6
You could potentially get 0.5 higher on all except the pinhole with perfect/near perfect front centering.
I dislike that the centering is based solely on the worst axis. To me a 90/10 with 50/50 is nicer than a 90/10 with 90/10.
I'd prefer they sum the 2 lows. A 90/10 50/50 is a 60. A 90/10 90/10 is a 20.
Just one guys opinion.
Many can "eyeball" the borders and come up with a centering value/ratio.
70/30 e.g. is a "RATIO" of the right vs the left border (in the case of the Mantle - the "white" part of the border on both sides).
So, e.g., if I were to measure the border on the right and left - let's say 10mm total e.g. - and the right border was 6mm and the left 4mm - then the right border is 6/10 - i.e. 60% vs the left which would be 40% (4/10).
So, if someone says the border R-T (right to left) is 60/40 - they're saying 60% of the border is on the "right" and 40% on the "left" side.
Hope I wrote this right?