Hey everyone! Merry Christmas!...well it is about 3 weeks away from my promise to God to stop buying cards for the year. I just popped in to check what has been going on and it seems there have been many changes. I am going to break my 1978 set this week with Probstein, my 1979 next week or so and then my 1976 and 1977 next year with PWCC. I haven't sold any of my minis and don't intend to. Sorry I missed out on that Twitchell! 250.00 is a bargain IMO. I still hold that 2015 is going to be the year the dollar dies - I have been cost averaging gold/silver throughout this year and am basically set for the apocalypse Great to catch up on the mini thread! Henry
Anyone interested in 3 pack fresh, self-submitted PSA 7 toughies? I have Tanana #16, Alou #253 and Davis #564. $18 dlvd via paypal gift takes all 3 cards. **SOLD** Thanks!
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
I just received the following grades this morning on the two Tommy Davis cards:
23741904 NEAR MINT 7 1975 Topps Mini 564 Tommy Davis Card 23741905 NEAR MINT 7 1975 Topps Mini 564 Tommy Davis Card
I'll take a close look at the cards when I get them back, but in all likelihood, the PD (stray black/purple ink above Davis' head and the white flecks in his hair) held these two back. In my opinion, these are still some of the best examples of this card I've ever seen.
T. Davis is the last Mini I need for an all 8 or higher set. Last Friday morning, Joe's Vintage Sport Cards listed a recently graded T. Davis in PSA 8. Having submitted the above two, and somewhat confident that they would receive 8's, I didn't hit the BIN right away on Friday. Instead, I put the listing in my eBay "watch" list, with the plan that I would wait until the grades on the two popped and then hit the BIN on it if they pulled less than 8's. However, the next morning, I reconsidered my plan, came to my senses, and decided to hit the BIN on the Davis. I paid 160 bucks for it, but considering that card's difficultly and the good deal of both time, emotion, and money I've spent trying to sub an 8 (I'm now 0 for 9 or something like that on it), I decided to be done with it and purchase the card at that price. I'm super glad I did that.
So, despite the above grades, I end the year on high note. At the beginning of 2014, I needed somewhere in the neighborhood of 17 upgrades from 7 to 8; all were green/yellows and red/yellows. I planned on subbing most or all of them as I didn't think I would be able to compete for them on eBay if and when they came up. I also figured it would take me a few years to get there by finding and subbing raw. But, fortunately for me, Henry took a step back in early 2014, which opened the door for me as far as purchasing many of the 17. Thank you, Henry! Incidentally, this was another reason for me hitting the BIN on the Davis - I wanted to get it before Henry came back in 2015, lol.
But all kidding aside, I'd like to wish all of my fellow Mini collector's a Happy New Year! And Henry, you can come back now, lol.
Congratulations Nick! Quite an accomplishment to get those remaining tough cards in PSA 8. Glad I could help on a few of them.
For me, 2014 was the first year I got into the minis. I've collected the 75 regulars for years, but didn't catch the mini bug until I ripped that memorable pack from BBCE back in April and pulled the PSA 9 Burleson. After that I was hooked. I purchased a PSA 7/8 graded set from PWCC back in May and have been upgrading cards ever since via rips, graded buys, and raw sets which I've been submitting.
I picked up another nice raw set recently that is at my house waiting for me when I get back in town this weekend. Hopefully I'll find some good cards worth subbing from that set.
Next year, I'm likely going to be selling one raw set and a large lot of graded cards that are dupes in my main set. I think I've got close to 100 PSA 7s & 8s right now with 125 card mini sub still at PSA from back in November. I've really enjoyed all the insights and commentary this thread provides. Best of luck in your collecting goals for 2015 and happy new year!
Congratulations on the final upgrade. I thought one of the TDs would be an 8. Sorry that did not pan out, but glad to see you pulled the trigger on the BIN. Not sure if Henry is coming back in 2015 or sidelining another year.
I picked up a nice raw set earlier in the year that looks great in the 75m pages less the ones sitting in PSA holders. I have a good start on a 7/8 set that I may do in 2015. Still undecided.
Thanks,
David (LD_Ferg)
1985 Topps Football (starting in psa 8) - #9 - started 05/21/06
ldferg: I wish you the best on your decision on the registry set.
Ryan: Good luck with that raw set. And thanks for all your help with filling holes in my set. If I recall correctly, you sold me at least 4 of the 17 I needed.
Tim (grote15) also helped me out quite bit in 2014. Thanks Tim!
ldferg: I wish you the best on your decision on the registry set.
Ryan: Good luck with that raw set. And thanks for all your help with filling holes in my set. If I recall correctly, you sold me at least 4 of the 17 I needed.
Tim (grote15) also helped me out quite bit in 2014. Thanks Tim! >>
You're welcome, Nick! Always a pleasure dealing with you!
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
Hello fellow 75 mini collectors~I have the following graded minis for sale, if anyone here is interested, feel free to shoot me a PM and we can work out a price. All of these cards were pulled from wax packs by me and self-submitted to PSA, and are truly "pack fresh." Here is what I have:
PSA 10
McAnally #318 SOLD
PSA 9
Singer #40 SOLD Henderson #59 Hardy #112 Maddox #113 SOLD 1951 MVPs #189 Cardinals team #246 SOLD Sanders #366 L. Foster #418 Christenson #551 SOLD
PSA 8
Melton #11 Green #91 Stargell #100 LaGrow #116 Singleton #125 Rogers #173 Hahn #182 1952 MVPs #190 1959 MVPs #197 1971 MVPs #209 Foote #229 Grubb #298 Kendall #332 Petrocelli #356 Solaita #389 Sizemore #404 Heise #441 Mangual #452 Wilson #455 Boswell #479 Briles #495 Ryan #500 Stanley #503 Tenace #535 T. Johnson #556 Holt #607 Carter RC #620
PSA 7
Carroll #345
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
Congrats Nick! Having completed my #2 PSA graded set in PSA 8 or better, I know what you mean about that #564 Davis! That was the last card I needed in PSA 8 as well. Truly a BEAST!! The Davis remains one of two cards I need in PSA 9 to have my #1 set all PSA 9 or better. The other, #125 Singleton.
Hi guys, first time posting on the mini thread. I collected them heavily as a kid buying tons of packs and my dad bought me a few boxes when he purchased wholesale for a small store where he worked. Wish I would have held onto the unopen boxes but when you're a 12 year old baseball card nut it just wasn't going to happen. I was lucky enough to store many of my collection in a safe manner and I'm slowly getting a few graded. Here's the latest graded edition to my very small registry mini set. I saw this was a tough card so I took a shot at grading it. Thanks. Doug
Welcome to the Mini thread, and thanks for sharing your story! I always enjoy hearing from those who collected Mini's back in the day when they were issued, and that's great that you saved your Mini cards in such nice condition all these years. Congrats on the Mike Schmidt!
That Schmidt is super sharp. Love seeing original cards from a childhood collection grade so well.
My mega sub of 125 minis from that raw set I picked up back in November should be popping soon. They've been in process since 11/20. With the holidays I figured my turnaround time should be in the next 2 weeks. I'm anxiously awaiting the results as I'm hoping a bunch of these land as 8s and 9s to help upgrade my set. Will be sure to update this thread when I've got the grades. I might try to do what Tim does and wait until I actually have the cards in hand to look at the grades. Not sure if I have the will power
The other set I picked up right after xmas was a bust. Advertised as "pack fresh" and nm-mt, I'd say only about 10% of the set was nm-mt with the vast majority in the ex-mt range. Oh well, seller was easy to deal with and I was able to return for a full refund.
Just saw that my grades posted to the PSA website. I couldn't resist taking a look... I'm glad that I did.
I highlighted a couple of the big hits. Looks like the Fred Norman is now a pop 2! This is first mini 10 that I've self subbed every. Pretty excited to finally land one. The Yount is actually a resub from the card that I pulled back in the spring from that awesome box that yielded the 9 Montague, Lockwood, Burleson and others.
Pretty much all of these cards, save for the 2 Bretts and Yount, came from the raw set I purchased from PWCC back in November. Super pleased with how I ended up doing on this one even after over $1000 in grading fees. I'm going to be keeping the ones that upgrade my set and will likely put together a second set of graded/raw that I might try to sell together. The other dupes I'll be sure to make available to folks here.
Line # Item # Grade Description Type 1 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 215 Bobby Valentine Card 2 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 213 Oscar Gamble Card 3 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 203 1965-MVP's Z.Versalles/W.Mays Card 4 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 199 1961-MVP's R.Maris/F.Robinson Card 5 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 197 1959-MVP's N.Fox/E.Banks Card 6 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 187 Denny Doyle Card 7 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 178 Cesar Tovar Card 8 1 NEAR MINT 7 1975 Topps Mini 175 Don Money Card 9 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 OC 1975 Topps Mini 173 Steve Rogers Card 10 1 NEAR MINT 7 1975 Topps Mini 171 Ed Kirkpatrick Card 11 1 NEAR MINT 7 1975 Topps Mini 170 Bert Campaneris Card 12 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 169 Cookie Rojas Card 13 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 168 Bill Greif Card 14 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 167 Rich Coggins Card 15 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 163 Jim Brewer Card 16 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 161 Stan Bahnsen Card 17 1 MINT 9 OC 1975 Topps Mini 160 Graig Nettles Card 18 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 155 Jim Bibby Card 19 1 NEAR MINT-MINT+ 8.5 1975 Topps Mini 146 Padres Team John McNamara, Mgr. Card 20 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 144 Jim Wohlford Card 21 1 N6: MINIMUM SIZE REQUIREMENT 1975 Topps Mini 143 Cliff Johnson Card 22 1 NEAR MINT 7 1975 Topps Mini 142 Bob Reynolds Card 23 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 139 Horacio Pina Card 24 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 132 Randy Moffitt Card 25 1 MINT 9 OC 1975 Topps Mini 131 Toby Harrah Card 26 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 121 Bill North Card 27 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 223 Robin Yount Card 28 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 117 Orioles Team Earl Weaver, Mgr. Card 29 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 116 Lerrin LaGrow Card 30 1 NEAR MINT 7 1975 Topps Mini 114 Dick Lange Card 31 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 111 Wayne Garrett Card 32 1 MINT 9 OC 1975 Topps Mini 104 Bill Madlock Card 33 1 NEAR MINT 7 1975 Topps Mini 103 Rick Miller Card 34 1 NEAR MINT 7 1975 Topps Mini 99 Mike Hegan Card 35 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 92 Cecil Upshaw Card 36 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 620 Rookie Catchers-Outfielders Card 37 1 NEAR MINT 7 1975 Topps Mini 86 Joe Lis Card 38 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 84 Enzo Hernandez Card 39 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 73 J.R. Richard Card 40 1 N6: MINIMUM SIZE REQUIREMENT 1975 Topps Mini 65 Don Gullett Card 41 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 228 George Brett Card 42 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 58 Chuck Taylor Card 43 1 NEAR MINT 7 1975 Topps Mini 56 Rick Wise Card 44 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 46 Phillies Team Danny Ozark, Mgr. Card 45 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 42 Joe Coleman Card 46 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 38 Buddy Bell Card 47 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 37 Dave Freisleben Card 48 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 35 Ron Santo Card 49 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 33 Dusty Baker Card 50 1 NEAR MINT 7 1975 Topps Mini 500 Nolan Ryan Card 51 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 32 Reggie Cleveland Card 52 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 27 Ken Reitz Card 53 1 N6: MINIMUM SIZE REQUIREMENT 1975 Topps Mini 16 Frank Tanana Card 54 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 13 Gene Locklear Card 55 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 10 Willie Davis Card 56 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 568 Dale Murray Card 57 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 565 Joe Torre Card 58 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 550 Ralph Garr Card 59 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 547 Von Joshua Card 60 1 EXCELLENT 5 1975 Topps Mini 542 Pete Broberg Card 61 1 N6: MINIMUM SIZE REQUIREMENT 1975 Topps Mini 539 Jesse Jefferson Card 62 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 536 Bob Moose Card 63 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 529 Gary Thomasson Card 64 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 524 John Doherty Card 65 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 228 George Brett Card 66 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 525 Tom House Card 67 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 523 Tom Paciorek Card 68 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 518 Leo Cardenas Card 69 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 511 Rangers Team Billy Martin, Mgr. Card 70 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 510 Vida Blue Card 71 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 498 Al Downing Card 72 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 495 Nelson Briles Card 73 1 MINT 9 OC 1975 Topps Mini 486 Ray Fosse Card 74 1 EXCELLENT 5 1975 Topps Mini 485 Sparky Lyle Card 75 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 483 Steve Ontiveros Card 76 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 482 Tom McCraw Card 77 1 MINT 9 OC 1975 Topps Mini 481 Will McEnaney Card 78 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 480 Carlos May Card 79 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 467 Ed Halicki Card 80 1 NEAR MINT 7 1975 Topps Mini 466 A's Do It Again! Card 81 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 465 World Series Game 5 Card 82 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 463 World Series Game 3 Card 83 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 462 World Series Game 2 Card 84 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 461 World Series Game 1 Card 85 1 N6: MINIMUM SIZE REQUIREMENT 1975 Topps Mini 458 Ross Grimsley Card 86 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 451 Rick Dempsey Card 87 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 449 Charlie Williams Card 88 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 448 Frank Duffy Card 89 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 446 Bart Johnson Card 90 1 NEAR MINT 7 1975 Topps Mini 442 Maximino Leon Card 91 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 441 Bobby Heise Card 92 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 428 Dave Hamilton Card 93 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 424 John Lowenstein Card 94 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 420 Larry Bowa Card 95 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 412 Bill Hands Card 96 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 410 Mike Cueller Error-Cuellar Card 97 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 409 Bob Robertson Card 98 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 406 Bob Gallagher Card 99 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 404 Ted Sizemore Card 100 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 399 Terry Harmon Card 101 1 GEM MINT 10 1975 Topps Mini 396 Fred Norman Card 102 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 395 Bud Harrelson Card 103 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 385 Dock Ellis Card 104 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 378 Derrel Thomas Card 105 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 374 Eddie Watt Card 106 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 373 Bill Sharp Card 107 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 367 Craig Robinson Card 108 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 365 Bob Bailey Card 109 1 NEAR MINT-MINT+ 8.5 1975 Topps Mini 356 Rico Petrocelli Card 110 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 350 Bobby Murcer Card 111 1 NEAR MINT-MINT+ 8.5 1975 Topps Mini 345 Clay Carroll Card 112 1 NEAR MINT 7 1975 Topps Mini 344 Ben Oglivie Card 113 1 N6: MINIMUM SIZE REQUIREMENT 1975 Topps Mini 339 Jim Fregosi Card 114 1 NEAR MINT 7 1975 Topps Mini 336 Rennie Stennett Card 115 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 331 Indians Team Frank Robinson, Mgr. Card 116 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 403 Tom Buskey Card 117 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 577 John Morris Card 118 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 578 Dave Tomlin Card 119 1 NEAR MINT 7 1975 Topps Mini 589 Braves Team Clyde King, Mgr. Card 120 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 590 Cesar Cedeno Card 121 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 595 Joe Niekro Card 122 1 N6: MINIMUM SIZE REQUIREMENT 1975 Topps Mini 612 Terry Hughes Card 123 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 633 Paul Casanova Card 124 1 NEAR MINT 7 1975 Topps Mini 642 Mike Phillips Card 125 1 N6: MINIMUM SIZE REQUIREMENT 1975 Topps Mini 650 Dave May Card
Nothing sweeter than a self-subbed 10 Yount is awesome, too! Congrats, Ryan!
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
<< <i>Nothing sweeter than a self-subbed 10 Yount is awesome, too! Congrats, Ryan! >>
Hi guys, just checked in and had to pick myself up off the floor, Tim be careful! "self-subbed 10 Yount!" Actually, that 9 is a major hit. I destroyed 4 Yount 9s that were all short a couple years ago. Also, I know of several more cert numbers that are obvious shorts; further, I guess that particular card has been re-subbed trying to hit the 10 many times so the actual pop is probably significantly lower than the pop report so Congrats! Ryan, do you still have the 2 cards I was interested in? Sorry I lost contact for several months. - I haven't looked at the mini pops or ebay for a year so I have no idea what has been happening; I'll have to update my excel sometime soon Best Henry
<< <i>Nothing sweeter than a self-subbed 10 Yount is awesome, too! Congrats, Ryan! >>
Hi guys, just checked in and had to pick myself up off the floor, Tim be careful! "self-subbed 10 Yount!" Actually, that 9 is a major hit. I destroyed 4 Yount 9s that were all short a couple years ago. Also, I know of several more cert numbers that are obvious shorts; further, I guess that particular card has been re-subbed trying to hit the 10 many times so the actual pop is probably significantly lower than the pop report so Congrats! Ryan, do you still have the 2 cards I was interested in? Sorry I lost contact for several months. - I haven't looked at the mini pops or ebay for a year so I have no idea what has been happening; I'll have to update my excel sometime soon Best Henry >>
Missed the period there after 10, LOL..
One of the other "self-subbed" Yount 9s was one of mine that I pulled from a mini rack a couple years ago. One of my favorite cards..
Henry, it's well after New Year's now. Are you done stockpiling canned goods and ammo?? LOL..
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
Hey Tim, I am still on guns and butter mode although I have not gone total Prepper yet. I am also now almost completely out of the dollar (don't get me started with a "strong dollar" argument - the dollar is done and the implosion will be spectacular). I have sold probably 70% of my BB card collection but haven't touched my minis. I guess I am probably now open to buying the greatest BB card set ever!...hope to close the deal with Ryan soon. Also, if anyone has a full-sized Gullet or C. Johnson in an 8 or above, I'll give you almost any price you ask! Same with Tanana. Those are impossible and a large percent of the known population are clear shorts from many years ago Hope all is well with you Tim, missed you guys, Henry
<< <i>Congrats on the nice grades Ryan! FYI....Fred Norman PSA 10 is actually listed as a Pop 4, not a 2 pop. Always a good feeling when you get a self-submitted PSA 10 Mini. Way to go! >>
No, it's a pop 2 with Ryan's sub. Was pop 1 before this. #396 Fred Norman.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
<< <i>Hey Tim, I am still on guns and butter mode although I have not gone total Prepper yet. I am also now almost completely out of the dollar (don't get me started with a "strong dollar" argument - the dollar is done and the implosion will be spectacular). I have sold probably 70% of my BB card collection but haven't touched my minis. I guess I am probably now open to buying the greatest BB card set ever!...hope to close the deal with Ryan soon. Also, if anyone has a full-sized Gullet or C. Johnson in an 8 or above, I'll give you almost any price you ask! Same with Tanana. Those are impossible and a large percent of the known population are clear shorts from many years ago Hope all is well with you Tim, missed you guys, Henry >>
All is well here, Henry~glad to see you back here posting and hope to see you around more, too.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
<< <i>Does that mean you wish to purchase the better of my two Mini sets Henry? >>
Hello MM, Actually my plan is to stock up; then when the SHTF you'll be coming my way. At that time I'll trade you a couple buckets of Rice and a case of toilet paper for your #150 Gibson PSA 10...Score!
Henry, you'll have to add some sugar to sweeten the pot for Mr. Gibson. If there were PSA 11's..... that card would make the grade! Boo Yah! RIP Stewart Scott
I received my last order back from PSA yesterday and thought it would be cool to stack the cards by grade to get an idea of the distrubtion. On the left you have the 1 10, then then the 9s, 8.5s, 8s, 7s, 9OCs, and the two lonely 5s with surface wrinkles.
Also wanted to include scans of the Yount PSA 9 and the Norman PSA 10.
I also got this Brett back in an 8. I thought it had a chance to grade higher. Thinking of cracking and resubbing. Opinions?
Cool pics Ryan. I'm guessing the top left corner is keeping Brett at an 8. On my last few 75 mini subs, if there is a touch of white anywhere on a corner, nothing graded higher than an 8. Congrats on the 10.
Thanks,
David (LD_Ferg)
1985 Topps Football (starting in psa 8) - #9 - started 05/21/06
<< <i>Cool pics Ryan. I'm guessing the top left corner is keeping Brett at an 8. On my last few 75 mini subs, if there is a touch of white anywhere on a corner, nothing graded higher than an 8. Congrats on the 10. >>
That, and also the tilt, I suspect would cap the grade at an 8. It's fairly pronounced when you compare it to the gems above it.
Beautiful cards, Ryan! Makes me want to rip a few packs, LOL!
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
I thought it would be fun to do a top 10 list of toughest cards in this set. Having spent the last year ripping my share of packs, searching through raw lots at shows, buying raw sets, and looking for graded cards, I've got a new appreciation about how tough finding many of these cards in mint (or even in some cases nm-mt) condition. Whether its centering, natural shorts, snow, or other PD there are so many cards that are near impossible without these flaws.
If you could make a top 10 list of the toughest, which would make the cut?
Here's mine, in no particular order
#133 Dan Driessen - always OC t/b, part of the infamous red/yellows from the top of the sheets #16 Frank Tanana - is there even a full sized 9 out there? #223 Robin Yount - less than 7% of all the cards graded by PSA being 9 or 10, this one is sneaky tough #53 Dave Giusti - Like the Driessen, always seems to be centered low or has the dreaded yellow waves on top #647 Claudell Washington - Only pulled one from a pack and impossible to find centered, snow free #564 Tommy Davis - like his fellow green/yellow Claudell, Tommy either looks like he got out of a blizzard or has other print marks showing up #150 Bob Gibson - might be the toughest HOFer in the set. Those damn red/yellows are the devil! #5 Nolan Ryan HL - this entire subset are tough with the brown border showing the slightest imperfection. The Ryan also suffers centering issues. Very under the radar card! #405 John Montague - I might be a little biased on this one, but the 9 I graded was only the 3rd one... ever! It was also the first one in over 2 years. I don't know if we'll see another full sized 9 any time soon. #50 Brooks Robinson - another HOFer that always seems to be centered low or suffers from fish eyes.
Great list! I did a similar one last summer based on the population report at the time (July 2014) and my personal experience with the set. The pop report has its limitations for assessing difficultly for a number of reasons mentioned earlier in this thread. But here is the list I came up with starting with the most difficult. These are grouped together, because the differences between them in my opinion are so slight. And, I even struggled a bit with the groupings, but here goes:
1. Cliff Johnson, Dave Giusti, Jesus Alou - I think that these cards are hands down the most difficult ones to get in an 8 or higher holder. They are not only commonly found horribly off-centered and with all kinds of print defects (PD), but also below min. size. This latter fact, I think, slightly sets them apart from the ones below.
2. John Montague, Tommy Davis, Claudell Washington, Frank Tanana, Rick Burleson - This group is every bit as difficult in terms of centering and print defects as the one above; however, they've been much easier in my experience to find full-sized.
3. Most of the other red/yellows and green/yellows, including Driessen, Grimsley, Milbourne, Borgmann, Kusick, McEnaney, but excluding the relatively easy ones like Morris Nettles, Cookie Rojas, and Dave May. There's not enough difference in his grouping for me to pick them apart. They are all tough for the same reasons as groups 1 and 2, just very slightly less so in my experience.
4. Bert Blyleven - The toughest HOFer in the set to get in 8 or higher. It seems like it is always plagued with snow and off-center in the top/bottom dimension.
5. Bob Gibson - The next toughest of the HOFers. How this red/yellow color combo card has a population of 83 in 8 and 14 in 9 befuddles me. I've yet to find one raw worthy of submitting for an 8, and were it not for the population report showing relatively high numbers of 8's, I would have placed it with the number 2 group. Equally befuddling to me is that when it shows up on eBay, it's priced in the $30 to $40 range. How is this not a $100 card given its difficulty and the name recognition of the player (to me, Gibson is legendary)?
6. Chuck Taylor, Ken Singleton - Similar to Bert Blyleven. It's the same color combo, and is plagued with the same issues.
7. Len Randall, Ed Hermann, Enzo Hernandez, Denny Doyle, Steve Rogers, Willie Montanez, Brooks Robinson (third toughest HOFer, IMO) - Centering and PD issues.
8. Mike Marshall '74 Highlights - Sneaky tough. Seems to always be plagued with just enough snow to hold it at a 7. Also, it's tough to determine top/bottom centering on this one. Does one measure from the apostrophe in "'74" which sits slightly higher than the "74" or does one measure from the number "74" to the top edge? I wonder if the graders struggle with this question at times?
9. NL Championships #460. Tough to find centered and without snow.
10. Robin Yount - Relatively easy to find in an 8, but difficult in 9. Centering in the top/bottom dimension is the main issue with it. I can recall seeing very few perfectly centered Younts, even in a 9 holder.
Well, that's my list. I'm sure I've forgotten a number of toughies, but these are the ones that came quickly to mind.
Nick, you're not following the rules. I said top 10 list, not top categories which includes 30 cards! You are totally right on your list though. Some absolute beasts on there.
Stingray- I know what you mean about the 8.5s. Very tough to come by, especially on these toughies. In my last sub i got an 8.5 on a Clay Carroll, one of the red/yellow convos. It's now a pop 1!
well after 1 year away from my minis I went back and updated all my pops and spreadsheets...holy smokes! Guys, we have been talking about minis drying up and it appears that the data is finally cementing our belief. PSA 9 Mini = 15623; Regular = 45088...most striking is the comparison between Mini 8s (48932) versus Regular (124344; includes 8.5s) - basically there is no such thing as a difficult regular card in an 8 while there are dozens of minis that are still very hard to find in this condition. We tend to focus on the monster cards but there is a 2nd tier of difficult cards that have only a few more 8s graded than the monsters with almost no movement in 9s (remember a few of these are cut and still out there)...let me give you guys some examples of some of my sleepers with 8 population in parentheses and then the last 5 year populations in 9s (to show you the trend):
018 Tigers team (65) 13 13 12 12 12 (I suspect at least 4 are cut - 2 confirmed) 023 Russell (41) 14 14 16 13 13 (at least 3 of the 9s are cut) 041 Geronimo (46) 11 11 12 13 13 055 Bonds (47) 9 10 12 12 12 064 Chalk (40) 10 10 10 10 10 (at least 3 of these are known cut cards) 082 Kelly (42) 11 13 14 13 13 084 Hernandez (39) 14 14 14 13 13 096 Cosgrove (39) 10 12 12 11 12 101 Expos (50) 9 9 10 9 10 131 Harrah (46) 8 10 11 10 12 152 Guerrero (43) 12 14 15 13 14 160 Nettles (48) 10 10 11 11 11 (9s rarely come up for sale - only major setbreaks) 218 Johnson (42) 15 15 16 14 14 (several 9s are 6004 shorts) 219 Herman (39) 7 7 7 7 7 (most know how hard this card is but not a single 9 in almost 7 years! edit: 2 are known shorts so what is the real pop for 9s?) 232 Segui (48) 7 8 8 8 8 (3 of the 9s are known shorts!) 237 Morton (45) 8 8 8 9 9
<< <i>What is it with the 0.5 grades, they seem to be hard to get?? >>
I suspect you'll only start seeing 8.5s with minis when peeps start to send in large numbers of the strong 8s for review (similar to sets from the 60s and 50s). Right now it doesn't make financial sense to do so because you get no premium...eventually there will be a separate market for 8.5 (centered) versus the large number of relatively poorly centered 8s that comprise a large percentage of the population. Let's look at one easy example: Cosgrove (#97) has only 39 8s and only 12 9s...its VCP Jan 2014 was 14.66 for an 8 and 40.00 for a 9. Only when the spread between an 8 and a 9 increases does it make sense to really separate the high end 8s from the weak ones (also with such a low pop for 8s one would suspect that there should be separation between the strong and the weak 8s thus the need for more 8.5s). In the meantime, you can grab huge bargains (IMO) on ebay when relatively low pop 8s that are nicely centered come up for sale with 5.99 BINs
<< <i>The 8 that I had the toughest time finding that looked half-way decent and full size was the Fergosi. It took me nearly 4 years. >>
When I first started putting multiple sets together in 2008/9 four cards that were always a pain for me (non-monster) were Bill Russell; Ken Reitz; Jim Todd; and 624 rookies to find in an 8...I remember after 1.5 years of nothing a Jim Todd psa8 came up and I put a snipe of 111.00 thinking no way Im gonna lose this 8 dollar common - someone sniped beyond me and won that card for 113.50!
I am willing to pay the following for a full-sized 8: T. Davis or C. Johnson = 175.00. Tanana or Gullet = 110.00...anyone?
There was lots of activity on the Bay this weekend regarding the sale of Mini's. I wonder what caused this to happen? If it continues, I think it makes the set that much more fun to collect.
I don't know this seller and do not mean to imply anything towards them other than this card looks short in the slab. Can you determine from the auction if this is a new slab/cert or is this an old slab where some shorties slid thru?
<< <i>I don't know this seller and do not mean to imply anything towards them other than this card looks short in the slab. Can you determine from the auction if this is a new slab/cert or is this an old slab where some shorties slid thru?
I've tried submitting 3 cards lately "multiple" times all to be returned "min size" - Gates, Fregosi, and Kusick. >>
I've seen several of these cards for sale from the same seller. I believe they came from this auction. I looked at this one when the lot was originally offered, but passed when I noticed a lot of the "tougher" cards were short.
No way are these getting slabbed if they were submitted today.
Ok. So it's pretty safe to say these are not in new slabs or new certs.
I would say, yes, that is correct. The min size threshold for Mini's was raised in mid-2008, as I recall. The half-point grading system started in early 2008. At that time, PSA reformatted the flip to show the number grade underneath the written grade description (the way it is currently) so that collectors could distinguish between cards graded before and after implementation of the half-point grading system. The number grade on the Ollie is printed in-line with the written grade; therefore, that flip is pre-2008. Judging from the font, I would guess it was graded in 2007, which is when I first started collecting graded cards.
Way short in an old cert but at least it is a known short color combo out of the pack (green/yellow, red/yellow is the other).
Hard to believe that it took till 2008 for that issue to even come to light.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
Comments
Merry Christmas!...well it is about 3 weeks away from my promise to God to stop buying cards for the year. I just popped in to check what has been going on and it seems there have been many changes. I am going to break my 1978 set this week with Probstein, my 1979 next week or so and then my 1976 and 1977 next year with PWCC.
I haven't sold any of my minis and don't intend to. Sorry I missed out on that Twitchell! 250.00 is a bargain IMO.
I still hold that 2015 is going to be the year the dollar dies - I have been cost averaging gold/silver throughout this year and am basically set for the apocalypse
Great to catch up on the mini thread!
Henry
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
23741904 NEAR MINT 7 1975 Topps Mini 564 Tommy Davis Card
23741905 NEAR MINT 7 1975 Topps Mini 564 Tommy Davis Card
I'll take a close look at the cards when I get them back, but in all likelihood, the PD (stray black/purple ink above Davis' head and the white flecks in his hair) held these two back. In my opinion, these are still some of the best examples of this card I've ever seen.
T. Davis is the last Mini I need for an all 8 or higher set. Last Friday morning, Joe's Vintage Sport Cards listed a recently graded T. Davis in PSA 8. Having submitted the above two, and somewhat confident that they would receive 8's, I didn't hit the BIN right away on Friday. Instead, I put the listing in my eBay "watch" list, with the plan that I would wait until the grades on the two popped and then hit the BIN on it if they pulled less than 8's. However, the next morning, I reconsidered my plan, came to my senses, and decided to hit the BIN on the Davis. I paid 160 bucks for it, but considering that card's difficultly and the good deal of both time, emotion, and money I've spent trying to sub an 8 (I'm now 0 for 9 or something like that on it), I decided to be done with it and purchase the card at that price. I'm super glad I did that.
So, despite the above grades, I end the year on high note. At the beginning of 2014, I needed somewhere in the neighborhood of 17 upgrades from 7 to 8; all were green/yellows and red/yellows. I planned on subbing most or all of them as I didn't think I would be able to compete for them on eBay if and when they came up. I also figured it would take me a few years to get there by finding and subbing raw. But, fortunately for me, Henry took a step back in early 2014, which opened the door for me as far as purchasing many of the 17. Thank you, Henry! Incidentally, this was another reason for me hitting the BIN on the Davis - I wanted to get it before Henry came back in 2015, lol.
But all kidding aside, I'd like to wish all of my fellow Mini collector's a Happy New Year! And Henry, you can come back now, lol.
For me, 2014 was the first year I got into the minis. I've collected the 75 regulars for years, but didn't catch the mini bug until I ripped that memorable pack from BBCE back in April and pulled the PSA 9 Burleson. After that I was hooked. I purchased a PSA 7/8 graded set from PWCC back in May and have been upgrading cards ever since via rips, graded buys, and raw sets which I've been submitting.
I picked up another nice raw set recently that is at my house waiting for me when I get back in town this weekend. Hopefully I'll find some good cards worth subbing from that set.
Next year, I'm likely going to be selling one raw set and a large lot of graded cards that are dupes in my main set. I think I've got close to 100 PSA 7s & 8s right now with 125 card mini sub still at PSA from back in November. I've really enjoyed all the insights and commentary this thread provides. Best of luck in your collecting goals for 2015 and happy new year!
Ryan Hoge - PSA President, IG: @maysmantle
I picked up a nice raw set earlier in the year that looks great in the 75m pages less the ones sitting in PSA holders. I have a good start on a 7/8 set that I may do in 2015. Still undecided.
Thanks,
David (LD_Ferg)
1985 Topps Football (starting in psa 8) - #9 - started 05/21/06
ldferg: I wish you the best on your decision on the registry set.
Ryan: Good luck with that raw set. And thanks for all your help with filling holes in my set. If I recall correctly, you sold me at least 4 of the 17 I needed.
Tim (grote15) also helped me out quite bit in 2014. Thanks Tim!
<< <i>Thanks guys.
ldferg: I wish you the best on your decision on the registry set.
Ryan: Good luck with that raw set. And thanks for all your help with filling holes in my set. If I recall correctly, you sold me at least 4 of the 17 I needed.
Tim (grote15) also helped me out quite bit in 2014. Thanks Tim! >>
You're welcome, Nick! Always a pleasure dealing with you!
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
Bosox1976
PSA 10
McAnally #318 SOLD
PSA 9
Singer #40 SOLD
Henderson #59
Hardy #112
Maddox #113 SOLD
1951 MVPs #189
Cardinals team #246 SOLD
Sanders #366
L. Foster #418
Christenson #551 SOLD
PSA 8
Melton #11
Green #91
Stargell #100
LaGrow #116
Singleton #125
Rogers #173
Hahn #182
1952 MVPs #190
1959 MVPs #197
1971 MVPs #209
Foote #229
Grubb #298
Kendall #332
Petrocelli #356
Solaita #389
Sizemore #404
Heise #441
Mangual #452
Wilson #455
Boswell #479
Briles #495
Ryan #500
Stanley #503
Tenace #535
T. Johnson #556
Holt #607
Carter RC #620
PSA 7
Carroll #345
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
Welcome to the Mini thread, and thanks for sharing your story! I always enjoy hearing from those who collected Mini's back in the day when they were issued, and that's great that you saved your Mini cards in such nice condition all these years. Congrats on the Mike Schmidt!
My mega sub of 125 minis from that raw set I picked up back in November should be popping soon. They've been in process since 11/20. With the holidays I figured my turnaround time should be in the next 2 weeks. I'm anxiously awaiting the results as I'm hoping a bunch of these land as 8s and 9s to help upgrade my set. Will be sure to update this thread when I've got the grades. I might try to do what Tim does and wait until I actually have the cards in hand to look at the grades. Not sure if I have the will power
The other set I picked up right after xmas was a bust. Advertised as "pack fresh" and nm-mt, I'd say only about 10% of the set was nm-mt with the vast majority in the ex-mt range. Oh well, seller was easy to deal with and I was able to return for a full refund.
Ryan Hoge - PSA President, IG: @maysmantle
I highlighted a couple of the big hits. Looks like the Fred Norman is now a pop 2! This is first mini 10 that I've self subbed every. Pretty excited to finally land one. The Yount is actually a resub from the card that I pulled back in the spring from that awesome box that yielded the 9 Montague, Lockwood, Burleson and others.
Pretty much all of these cards, save for the 2 Bretts and Yount, came from the raw set I purchased from PWCC back in November. Super pleased with how I ended up doing on this one even after over $1000 in grading fees. I'm going to be keeping the ones that upgrade my set and will likely put together a second set of graded/raw that I might try to sell together. The other dupes I'll be sure to make available to folks here.
Line # Item # Grade Description Type
1 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 215 Bobby Valentine Card
2 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 213 Oscar Gamble Card
3 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 203 1965-MVP's Z.Versalles/W.Mays Card
4 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 199 1961-MVP's R.Maris/F.Robinson Card
5 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 197 1959-MVP's N.Fox/E.Banks Card
6 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 187 Denny Doyle Card
7 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 178 Cesar Tovar Card
8 1 NEAR MINT 7 1975 Topps Mini 175 Don Money Card
9 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 OC 1975 Topps Mini 173 Steve Rogers Card
10 1 NEAR MINT 7 1975 Topps Mini 171 Ed Kirkpatrick Card
11 1 NEAR MINT 7 1975 Topps Mini 170 Bert Campaneris Card
12 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 169 Cookie Rojas Card
13 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 168 Bill Greif Card
14 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 167 Rich Coggins Card
15 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 163 Jim Brewer Card
16 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 161 Stan Bahnsen Card
17 1 MINT 9 OC 1975 Topps Mini 160 Graig Nettles Card
18 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 155 Jim Bibby Card
19 1 NEAR MINT-MINT+ 8.5 1975 Topps Mini 146 Padres Team John McNamara, Mgr. Card
20 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 144 Jim Wohlford Card
21 1 N6: MINIMUM SIZE REQUIREMENT 1975 Topps Mini 143 Cliff Johnson Card
22 1 NEAR MINT 7 1975 Topps Mini 142 Bob Reynolds Card
23 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 139 Horacio Pina Card
24 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 132 Randy Moffitt Card
25 1 MINT 9 OC 1975 Topps Mini 131 Toby Harrah Card
26 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 121 Bill North Card
27 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 223 Robin Yount Card
28 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 117 Orioles Team Earl Weaver, Mgr. Card
29 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 116 Lerrin LaGrow Card
30 1 NEAR MINT 7 1975 Topps Mini 114 Dick Lange Card
31 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 111 Wayne Garrett Card
32 1 MINT 9 OC 1975 Topps Mini 104 Bill Madlock Card
33 1 NEAR MINT 7 1975 Topps Mini 103 Rick Miller Card
34 1 NEAR MINT 7 1975 Topps Mini 99 Mike Hegan Card
35 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 92 Cecil Upshaw Card
36 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 620 Rookie Catchers-Outfielders Card
37 1 NEAR MINT 7 1975 Topps Mini 86 Joe Lis Card
38 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 84 Enzo Hernandez Card
39 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 73 J.R. Richard Card
40 1 N6: MINIMUM SIZE REQUIREMENT 1975 Topps Mini 65 Don Gullett Card
41 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 228 George Brett Card
42 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 58 Chuck Taylor Card
43 1 NEAR MINT 7 1975 Topps Mini 56 Rick Wise Card
44 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 46 Phillies Team Danny Ozark, Mgr. Card
45 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 42 Joe Coleman Card
46 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 38 Buddy Bell Card
47 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 37 Dave Freisleben Card
48 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 35 Ron Santo Card
49 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 33 Dusty Baker Card
50 1 NEAR MINT 7 1975 Topps Mini 500 Nolan Ryan Card
51 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 32 Reggie Cleveland Card
52 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 27 Ken Reitz Card
53 1 N6: MINIMUM SIZE REQUIREMENT 1975 Topps Mini 16 Frank Tanana Card
54 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 13 Gene Locklear Card
55 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 10 Willie Davis Card
56 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 568 Dale Murray Card
57 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 565 Joe Torre Card
58 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 550 Ralph Garr Card
59 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 547 Von Joshua Card
60 1 EXCELLENT 5 1975 Topps Mini 542 Pete Broberg Card
61 1 N6: MINIMUM SIZE REQUIREMENT 1975 Topps Mini 539 Jesse Jefferson Card
62 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 536 Bob Moose Card
63 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 529 Gary Thomasson Card
64 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 524 John Doherty Card
65 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 228 George Brett Card
66 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 525 Tom House Card
67 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 523 Tom Paciorek Card
68 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 518 Leo Cardenas Card
69 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 511 Rangers Team Billy Martin, Mgr. Card
70 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 510 Vida Blue Card
71 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 498 Al Downing Card
72 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 495 Nelson Briles Card
73 1 MINT 9 OC 1975 Topps Mini 486 Ray Fosse Card
74 1 EXCELLENT 5 1975 Topps Mini 485 Sparky Lyle Card
75 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 483 Steve Ontiveros Card
76 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 482 Tom McCraw Card
77 1 MINT 9 OC 1975 Topps Mini 481 Will McEnaney Card
78 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 480 Carlos May Card
79 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 467 Ed Halicki Card
80 1 NEAR MINT 7 1975 Topps Mini 466 A's Do It Again! Card
81 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 465 World Series Game 5 Card
82 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 463 World Series Game 3 Card
83 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 462 World Series Game 2 Card
84 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 461 World Series Game 1 Card
85 1 N6: MINIMUM SIZE REQUIREMENT 1975 Topps Mini 458 Ross Grimsley Card
86 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 451 Rick Dempsey Card
87 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 449 Charlie Williams Card
88 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 448 Frank Duffy Card
89 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 446 Bart Johnson Card
90 1 NEAR MINT 7 1975 Topps Mini 442 Maximino Leon Card
91 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 441 Bobby Heise Card
92 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 428 Dave Hamilton Card
93 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 424 John Lowenstein Card
94 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 420 Larry Bowa Card
95 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 412 Bill Hands Card
96 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 410 Mike Cueller Error-Cuellar Card
97 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 409 Bob Robertson Card
98 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 406 Bob Gallagher Card
99 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 404 Ted Sizemore Card
100 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 399 Terry Harmon Card
101 1 GEM MINT 10 1975 Topps Mini 396 Fred Norman Card
102 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 395 Bud Harrelson Card
103 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 385 Dock Ellis Card
104 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 378 Derrel Thomas Card
105 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 374 Eddie Watt Card
106 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 373 Bill Sharp Card
107 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 367 Craig Robinson Card
108 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 365 Bob Bailey Card
109 1 NEAR MINT-MINT+ 8.5 1975 Topps Mini 356 Rico Petrocelli Card
110 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 350 Bobby Murcer Card
111 1 NEAR MINT-MINT+ 8.5 1975 Topps Mini 345 Clay Carroll Card
112 1 NEAR MINT 7 1975 Topps Mini 344 Ben Oglivie Card
113 1 N6: MINIMUM SIZE REQUIREMENT 1975 Topps Mini 339 Jim Fregosi Card
114 1 NEAR MINT 7 1975 Topps Mini 336 Rennie Stennett Card
115 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 331 Indians Team Frank Robinson, Mgr. Card
116 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 403 Tom Buskey Card
117 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 577 John Morris Card
118 1 MINT 9 1975 Topps Mini 578 Dave Tomlin Card
119 1 NEAR MINT 7 1975 Topps Mini 589 Braves Team Clyde King, Mgr. Card
120 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 590 Cesar Cedeno Card
121 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 595 Joe Niekro Card
122 1 N6: MINIMUM SIZE REQUIREMENT 1975 Topps Mini 612 Terry Hughes Card
123 1 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1975 Topps Mini 633 Paul Casanova Card
124 1 NEAR MINT 7 1975 Topps Mini 642 Mike Phillips Card
125 1 N6: MINIMUM SIZE REQUIREMENT 1975 Topps Mini 650 Dave May Card
Ryan Hoge - PSA President, IG: @maysmantle
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
<< <i>Nothing sweeter than a self-subbed 10 Yount is awesome, too! Congrats, Ryan! >>
Hi guys, just checked in and had to pick myself up off the floor, Tim be careful! "self-subbed 10 Yount!"
Actually, that 9 is a major hit. I destroyed 4 Yount 9s that were all short a couple years ago. Also, I know of several more cert numbers that are obvious shorts; further, I guess that particular card has been re-subbed trying to hit the 10 many times so the actual pop is probably significantly lower than the pop report so Congrats!
Ryan, do you still have the 2 cards I was interested in? Sorry I lost contact for several months. - I haven't looked at the mini pops or ebay for a year so I have no idea what has been happening; I'll have to update my excel sometime soon
Best
Henry
Ryan Hoge - PSA President, IG: @maysmantle
<< <i>
<< <i>Nothing sweeter than a self-subbed 10 Yount is awesome, too! Congrats, Ryan! >>
Hi guys, just checked in and had to pick myself up off the floor, Tim be careful! "self-subbed 10 Yount!"
Actually, that 9 is a major hit. I destroyed 4 Yount 9s that were all short a couple years ago. Also, I know of several more cert numbers that are obvious shorts; further, I guess that particular card has been re-subbed trying to hit the 10 many times so the actual pop is probably significantly lower than the pop report so Congrats!
Ryan, do you still have the 2 cards I was interested in? Sorry I lost contact for several months. - I haven't looked at the mini pops or ebay for a year so I have no idea what has been happening; I'll have to update my excel sometime soon
Best
Henry >>
Missed the period there after 10, LOL..
One of the other "self-subbed" Yount 9s was one of mine that I pulled from a mini rack a couple years ago. One of my favorite cards..
Henry, it's well after New Year's now. Are you done stockpiling canned goods and ammo?? LOL..
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
I am still on guns and butter mode although I have not gone total Prepper yet.
Hope all is well with you Tim, missed you guys,
Henry
<< <i>Congrats on the nice grades Ryan! FYI....Fred Norman PSA 10 is actually listed as a Pop 4, not a 2 pop. Always a good feeling when you get a self-submitted PSA 10 Mini. Way to go!
No, it's a pop 2 with Ryan's sub. Was pop 1 before this. #396 Fred Norman.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
<< <i>Hey Tim,
I am still on guns and butter mode although I have not gone total Prepper yet.
Hope all is well with you Tim, missed you guys,
Henry >>
All is well here, Henry~glad to see you back here posting and hope to see you around more, too.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
<< <i>Does that mean you wish to purchase the better of my two Mini sets Henry?
Hello MM,
Actually my plan is to stock up; then when the SHTF you'll be coming my way. At that time I'll trade you a couple buckets of Rice and a case of toilet paper for your #150 Gibson PSA 10...Score!
I have an extra Tanana. PM me if you are interested.
Also wanted to include scans of the Yount PSA 9 and the Norman PSA 10.
I also got this Brett back in an 8. I thought it had a chance to grade higher. Thinking of cracking and resubbing. Opinions?
Ryan Hoge - PSA President, IG: @maysmantle
Thanks,
David (LD_Ferg)
1985 Topps Football (starting in psa 8) - #9 - started 05/21/06
<< <i>Cool pics Ryan. I'm guessing the top left corner is keeping Brett at an 8. On my last few 75 mini subs, if there is a touch of white anywhere on a corner, nothing graded higher than an 8. Congrats on the 10. >>
That, and also the tilt, I suspect would cap the grade at an 8. It's fairly pronounced when you compare it to the gems above it.
Beautiful cards, Ryan! Makes me want to rip a few packs, LOL!
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
By my eye, the Brett has similar condition attributes to the Yount. Therefore, I think it's worth another shot.
If you could make a top 10 list of the toughest, which would make the cut?
Here's mine, in no particular order
#133 Dan Driessen - always OC t/b, part of the infamous red/yellows from the top of the sheets
#16 Frank Tanana - is there even a full sized 9 out there?
#223 Robin Yount - less than 7% of all the cards graded by PSA being 9 or 10, this one is sneaky tough
#53 Dave Giusti - Like the Driessen, always seems to be centered low or has the dreaded yellow waves on top
#647 Claudell Washington - Only pulled one from a pack and impossible to find centered, snow free
#564 Tommy Davis - like his fellow green/yellow Claudell, Tommy either looks like he got out of a blizzard or has other print marks showing up
#150 Bob Gibson - might be the toughest HOFer in the set. Those damn red/yellows are the devil!
#5 Nolan Ryan HL - this entire subset are tough with the brown border showing the slightest imperfection. The Ryan also suffers centering issues. Very under the radar card!
#405 John Montague - I might be a little biased on this one, but the 9 I graded was only the 3rd one... ever! It was also the first one in over 2 years. I don't know if we'll see another full sized 9 any time soon.
#50 Brooks Robinson - another HOFer that always seems to be centered low or suffers from fish eyes.
Ryan Hoge - PSA President, IG: @maysmantle
Great list! I did a similar one last summer based on the population report at the time (July 2014) and my personal experience with the set. The pop report has its limitations for assessing difficultly for a number of reasons mentioned earlier in this thread. But here is the list I came up with starting with the most difficult. These are grouped together, because the differences between them in my opinion are so slight. And, I even struggled a bit with the groupings, but here goes:
1. Cliff Johnson, Dave Giusti, Jesus Alou - I think that these cards are hands down the most difficult ones to get in an 8 or higher holder. They are not only commonly found horribly off-centered and with all kinds of print defects (PD), but also below min. size. This latter fact, I think, slightly sets them apart from the ones below.
2. John Montague, Tommy Davis, Claudell Washington, Frank Tanana, Rick Burleson - This group is every bit as difficult in terms of centering and print defects as the one above; however, they've been much easier in my experience to find full-sized.
3. Most of the other red/yellows and green/yellows, including Driessen, Grimsley, Milbourne, Borgmann, Kusick, McEnaney, but excluding the relatively easy ones like Morris Nettles, Cookie Rojas, and Dave May. There's not enough difference in his grouping for me to pick them apart. They are all tough for the same reasons as groups 1 and 2, just very slightly less so in my experience.
4. Bert Blyleven - The toughest HOFer in the set to get in 8 or higher. It seems like it is always plagued with snow and off-center in the top/bottom dimension.
5. Bob Gibson - The next toughest of the HOFers. How this red/yellow color combo card has a population of 83 in 8 and 14 in 9 befuddles me. I've yet to find one raw worthy of submitting for an 8, and were it not for the population report showing relatively high numbers of 8's, I would have placed it with the number 2 group. Equally befuddling to me is that when it shows up on eBay, it's priced in the $30 to $40 range. How is this not a $100 card given its difficulty and the name recognition of the player (to me, Gibson is legendary)?
6. Chuck Taylor, Ken Singleton - Similar to Bert Blyleven. It's the same color combo, and is plagued with the same issues.
7. Len Randall, Ed Hermann, Enzo Hernandez, Denny Doyle, Steve Rogers, Willie Montanez, Brooks Robinson (third toughest HOFer, IMO) - Centering and PD issues.
8. Mike Marshall '74 Highlights - Sneaky tough. Seems to always be plagued with just enough snow to hold it at a 7. Also, it's tough to determine top/bottom centering on this one. Does one measure from the apostrophe in "'74" which sits slightly higher than the "74" or does one measure from the number "74" to the top edge? I wonder if the graders struggle with this question at times?
9. NL Championships #460. Tough to find centered and without snow.
10. Robin Yount - Relatively easy to find in an 8, but difficult in 9. Centering in the top/bottom dimension is the main issue with it. I can recall seeing very few perfectly centered Younts, even in a 9 holder.
Well, that's my list. I'm sure I've forgotten a number of toughies, but these are the ones that came quickly to mind.
You are totally right on your list though. Some absolute beasts on there.
Stingray- I know what you mean about the 8.5s. Very tough to come by, especially on these toughies. In my last sub i got an 8.5 on a Clay Carroll, one of the red/yellow convos. It's now a pop 1!
Ryan Hoge - PSA President, IG: @maysmantle
PSA 9 Mini = 15623; Regular = 45088...most striking is the comparison between Mini 8s (48932) versus Regular (124344; includes 8.5s) - basically there is no such thing as a difficult regular card in an 8 while there are dozens of minis that are still very hard to find in this condition.
We tend to focus on the monster cards but there is a 2nd tier of difficult cards that have only a few more 8s graded than the monsters with almost no movement in 9s (remember a few of these are cut and still out there)...let me give you guys some examples of some of my sleepers with 8 population in parentheses and then the last 5 year populations in 9s (to show you the trend):
018 Tigers team (65) 13 13 12 12 12 (I suspect at least 4 are cut - 2 confirmed)
023 Russell (41) 14 14 16 13 13 (at least 3 of the 9s are cut)
041 Geronimo (46) 11 11 12 13 13
055 Bonds (47) 9 10 12 12 12
064 Chalk (40) 10 10 10 10 10 (at least 3 of these are known cut cards)
082 Kelly (42) 11 13 14 13 13
084 Hernandez (39) 14 14 14 13 13
096 Cosgrove (39) 10 12 12 11 12
101 Expos (50) 9 9 10 9 10
131 Harrah (46) 8 10 11 10 12
152 Guerrero (43) 12 14 15 13 14
160 Nettles (48) 10 10 11 11 11 (9s rarely come up for sale - only major setbreaks)
218 Johnson (42) 15 15 16 14 14 (several 9s are 6004 shorts)
219 Herman (39) 7 7 7 7 7 (most know how hard this card is but not a single 9 in almost 7 years! edit: 2 are known shorts so what is the real pop for 9s?)
232 Segui (48) 7 8 8 8 8 (3 of the 9s are known shorts!)
237 Morton (45) 8 8 8 9 9
list goes on and on...
edits: several typos
<< <i>What is it with the 0.5 grades, they seem to be hard to get?? >>
I suspect you'll only start seeing 8.5s with minis when peeps start to send in large numbers of the strong 8s for review (similar to sets from the 60s and 50s). Right now it doesn't make financial sense to do so because you get no premium...eventually there will be a separate market for 8.5 (centered) versus the large number of relatively poorly centered 8s that comprise a large percentage of the population. Let's look at one easy example: Cosgrove (#97) has only 39 8s and only 12 9s...its VCP Jan 2014 was 14.66 for an 8 and 40.00 for a 9. Only when the spread between an 8 and a 9 increases does it make sense to really separate the high end 8s from the weak ones (also with such a low pop for 8s one would suspect that there should be separation between the strong and the weak 8s thus the need for more 8.5s). In the meantime, you can grab huge bargains (IMO) on ebay when relatively low pop 8s that are nicely centered come up for sale with 5.99 BINs
<< <i>The 8 that I had the toughest time finding that looked half-way decent and full size was the Fergosi. It took me nearly 4 years. >>
When I first started putting multiple sets together in 2008/9 four cards that were always a pain for me (non-monster) were Bill Russell; Ken Reitz; Jim Todd; and 624 rookies to find in an 8...I remember after 1.5 years of nothing a Jim Todd psa8 came up and I put a snipe of 111.00 thinking no way Im gonna lose this 8 dollar common - someone sniped beyond me and won that card for 113.50!
I am willing to pay the following for a full-sized 8: T. Davis or C. Johnson = 175.00. Tanana or Gullet = 110.00...anyone?
75 Topps Ollie Brown
I've tried submitting 3 cards lately "multiple" times all to be returned "min size" - Gates, Fregosi, and Kusick.
Thanks,
David (LD_Ferg)
1985 Topps Football (starting in psa 8) - #9 - started 05/21/06
<< <i>I don't know this seller and do not mean to imply anything towards them other than this card looks short in the slab. Can you determine from the auction if this is a new slab/cert or is this an old slab where some shorties slid thru?
75 Topps Ollie Brown
I've tried submitting 3 cards lately "multiple" times all to be returned "min size" - Gates, Fregosi, and Kusick. >>
I've seen several of these cards for sale from the same seller. I believe they came from this auction. I looked at this one when the lot was originally offered, but passed when I noticed a lot of the "tougher" cards were short.
No way are these getting slabbed if they were submitted today.
edit: fixed url
Ryan Hoge - PSA President, IG: @maysmantle
<< <i>....No way are these getting slabbed if they were submitted today. >>
Ok. So it's pretty safe to say these are not in new slabs or new certs.
Thanks,
David (LD_Ferg)
1985 Topps Football (starting in psa 8) - #9 - started 05/21/06
I would say, yes, that is correct. The min size threshold for Mini's was raised in mid-2008, as I recall. The half-point grading system started in early 2008. At that time, PSA reformatted the flip to show the number grade underneath the written grade description (the way it is currently) so that collectors could distinguish between cards graded before and after implementation of the half-point grading system. The number grade on the Ollie is printed in-line with the written grade; therefore, that flip is pre-2008. Judging from the font, I would guess it was graded in 2007, which is when I first started collecting graded cards.
<< <i>
<< <i>....No way are these getting slabbed if they were submitted today. >>
Ok. So it's pretty safe to say these are not in new slabs or new certs. >>
I believe I may purchase that card and destroy it with extreme prejudice; it offends me
Hard to believe that it took till 2008 for that issue to even come to light.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.