My latest PSA sub came back this week: my best sub ever! With scans :)
slum22
Posts: 2,593 ✭✭✭✭
I got my latest sub back from PSA back earlier this week and it was a success on pretty much all fronts. First of all (knocking on wood), it seems as though PSA may have turned the corner a little on their turnaround problems. It is still taking a while to log, but I subbed this group as part of a bulk sub which I believe is stated as a 60 BD turnaround these days. This one popped in a mere 12 business days. I would have to double check, but I am pretty sure this sub took longer to log than to grade! Historically, fast poppage has meant some pretty poor grades for me. Granted it was a small sample size, but most of my worst sub results have generally come with the subs that popped the fastest. This time, I pretty much could not have asked for a better result. For my part of the sub I hit 35 Gems out of 37 cards. Here they are in pics with some running commentary!
So, I am mostly a basketball guy of course, but I have picked up some Jimmy G, Wentz and Brady cards over the last year and I have generally had very nice luck subbing FB. More of that good luck in this sub. The 1993 Stadium Club MJ came from a box I ripped earlier this year. The box was chalk full of MJ's, most of which were in very good shape. This card was a bit of a test case. I may go back and sub more from that box later. It is always fun to get a Gem from a card you pulled from a pack!
I did pretty well with my 90's cards in this sub. For cards 20+ years old, I was happy with 3 10's and a 9. In fact the Iverson Refractor I subbed expecting the 9 due to centering. I am quietly buying 90's and 2000's Topps Chrome refractors of HOFers. Obviously, the HOF RC's get the most attention, but I am putting away HOF Refractor cards of all years. I have had great success subbing 2000's Refractors and these are the first 90's Refractors I have sent in. Hopefully I can continue this kind of success in the future.
So here is the other non 10 in the batch. Since I anticipated the 9 on the Iverson above, the SP Authentic Giannis is the only card in the sub that I sent in expecting a 10 without receiving it. I am not sure if I missed something egregious or if someone damaged the card in the grading process. If I can get 35 10's out of 36 (or 37) attempts... channeling my inner Costanza, "Jimmy Crack corn and I don't care". Especially when the card that got the 5 is probably the least valuable card in the whole dang sub.
My newest PC player is Ben Simmons. I was lucky to get some of his cards early in the season and even luckier to pull some great cards of his in box rips! Both of these cards are pack pulled from boxes I bought earlier this year. 2016 Optic is still one of the better affordable modern box rips at current prices. The Simmons Optic Red is /99 and the Rookie Kings Orange is /199. Those are probably my favorite two cards in the whole sub and the most anticipated grades in the sub. Once I saw the 10's on those, every thing after became gravy. The 2017 Contenders release was one of the best looking sets overall that Panini has ever put out IMO. Everything from the base set, to the autos and the inserts were excellent from the hobby boxes. The Premium Edition cards like the Lebron have a Optic Chrome type finish and the Lonzo ROY Contenders Cracked Ice is /25. 
Speaking of good looking sets, the Optic Shock Prizms are essentially the same design as the 2015 Prizm Flash Prizms. I like the way the design looks, but I had terrible luck subbing 2015 Flash Prizms, having received nothing but 9's for my troubles in the past. My luck turned on these 4!
I opened and purchased a lot of Prizm this year. I don't remember if the Tatum or Mitchells were from rips or purchased as singles. Prizm was pretty rough with their quality control as a high percentage of cards I have come across came with either centering or surface issues even straight out of the pack. The Lauri Markkanen Green Prizm came out of a retail box I opened earlier this year. Again, it is always fun to get a Gem from pack pulled cards. It really never gets old. 
The Lonzo Ruby Wave and De'Aaron Fox Silver both came from rips 
The Simmons Ruby Wave is the fourth Colored Prizm I have of him from 2017. I have yet to decide if I will try for the (budget) rainbow on his 2017 Prizm cards or if I will focus only on this 2016 Prizm and Optic rainbows. The Fox Silver was the third Silver Prizm I have received a 10 for from cards that I pulled this year. I generally had pretty lousy luck pulling Silver RC's from packs this year as he was literally the best Silver Prizm I pulled out of around $2000 worth of packs (from half a hobby case to tons of retail packs/boxes, cello and blasters. Luckily, I was able to get some insane luck out of retail packs and pulled some monster colored Prizms from there, otherwise this year's Prizm would have been an epic disaster. Anyway, while Silver is considered king in the world of Prizm collecting I prefer color aesthetically!
The Lonzo Fast Break and Fultz Fast Breaks are all from box rips as well. I had much better luck pulling good cards out of Fast Break boxes than the regular Prizm Hobby boxes. I think the Fast Break boxes along with the aforementioned 2016 Optic boxes are some of the better box opening values available currently. 
The 2017 Luck of the Lottery set is one that I am trying to build. They come as base inserts as well as numbered and unnumbered parallels. I am going to try and complete the set in base, Silver and Hyper Prizm form. Based on stated odds, each of these three types of LOTL cards are essentially case hits falling 1 per case for the base and Hyper and 1 per 3 cases in the case of Silvers. Revolution is consistently one of the better looking low end releases Panini puts out for basketball each year. This year is no exception. The Curry Cubic is /50 and the Mitchell Chinese New Year is a special parallel. The CNY parallels are nice looking but not all that rare, but I am most happy to have got a 10 on my Revolution cards in this sub as I have had pretty hit and miss results grading Revolution in the past.
Subbed an extra Mitchell just in case to give me two cracks at a 10:)
Thanks for looking!
Comments
Incredible sub Steve. Congrats.
Josh Jackson needs a new hat. I am not as verbose as Steve, but contrary to our usual strategy I piggybacked with him on this sub. (Usually I am true controlling and must be the one subbing). While not as many high dollar hits for me, I was pleased as well. Came away with this pop 4 for the Super Bowl MVP set. Super condition sensitive
Thanks Brian, I was pretty excited to get the cards back in hand.
Mike, congrats on the Dexter Jackson hit. We had a pretty good sub as a whole. Lol, on Josh Jackson needing a new hat. The problem wasn't the hat though. The problem was the hairdo under the hat. He wasn't the only one in the set with that look either. De'Aaron Fox looks just like him, lol. They would have been better off in the photo sans hat, IMO.
Can I start subbing my cards with yours?? Lol
possibly the best sub we've ever seen on these boards
Collecting Unopened from '72-'83; mostly BBCE certified boxes/cases/racks.
Prefer to buy in bulk.
Congratulations Steve!
Great results
Thanks,
David (LD_Ferg)
1985 Topps Football (starting in psa 8) - #9 - started 05/21/06
Nice modern hits!
Nice stuff Steve!
Great Sub! I hope this doesn't mean that all the 10's have been spoken for, for the next couple of months. LOL.
Lol, thanks Brian. I can let you know the next time we are planning to send in
Certainly not the highest end sub, but percentage-wise it was about as good as I will ever get. Some cards in this sub were from our Prizm break earlier in the year. Looking forward to next year's release already!
Thanks Guys!
Yeah, I need to get back to getting vintage stuff. For that, I typically buy already graded, but modern stuff is pretty fun to sub and go for my own 10's.
Thanks Manny. Good seeing you on here.
Plenty to go around my friend
great stuff there congrats!!!
collecting RAW Topps baseball cards 1952 Highs to 1972. looking for collector grade (somewhere between psa 4-7 condition). let me know what you have, I'll take it, I want to finish sets, I must have something you can use for trade.
looking for Topps 71-72 hi's-62-53-54-55-59, I have these sets started
Congrats Steve. Long time no talk. How have you been?
Doug
Liquidating my collection for the 3rd and final time. Time for others to enjoy what I have enjoyed over the last several decades. Money could be put to better use.
Thanks Fred!
Thanks Doug. I have been well, but just very busy. Two young kids and trying to get my new practice off the ground has curbed my downtime. I am hoping I can get back to being a regular on here.