Quality or Quanti6ty - Would you rather have? 76 Brett

The 76 Brett in a PSA 9 is now a Pop 25.

WOW that has increased.

Sounds like a tough call with the high grade pop increasing so much. There might come a day when you can afford to add the 9 and keep all three 8's.

I would have to see the three 8's you have. If high quality for the grade
I would keep them over selling them for one 8.5
If they are just so so looking and the 8.5 looks amazing, I would sell them and buy the 8.5

I have been told to gve up the good to get the great. You can always go back and find more 8’s at a later date, but how often does an 8.5 or 9 come up in a 76 Brett - card is tough to find.

Having said that IF the 8.5 has elite centering, eye appeal, corners... I would go for it. Last one that sold in July in an 8.5 was rough and did not look like an 8.5 or even a high end card.

@JBrules said:

@Dpeck100 said:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/192432411576?ViewItem=&item=192432411576

Nice card but with the centering and print dot up to the left I would keep all three 8's. Just not going to give this close enough to a 9 to cut three copies loose. There seems to be solid demand for the card in an 8 and I would rather have three copies that might drop $20 to $40 than a card that might drop $400 or more.

Totally agree with Dpeck on this. That is not a strong 8.5 in my opinion.

I third the opinion. That top to bottom centering really bothers me. I’d “Kung Fu” it and have patience, grasshopper.

I'll take a hobby dollar bill over 6 quarters every day.

Arthur

If the 8.5 in question is the one linked above, I would definitely pass.

Talking upgrade philosophy going forward, it should all depend on the specific cards in question. Anecdotally, when I was at the National in 2015 I had the opportunity to add a PSA 9 of that very card. And yet, when I brought a few collector and dealer friends to view the 9 in comparison to my 7, which I had on me at the time, they universally said the 7 looked nicer from a casual viewing distance due to its centering— let alone the price difference. $3000+ vs $30. Verdict was the loot was better spent elsewhere.

So I would not at all get caught up in the grade, and rather let your eye tell you which card is most attractive; you might wind up already having the better card in hand, and saving some bucks for another nice card.

When it comes to the 1976 Brett, what catches my eye as special is when a copy is centered well, as so few are; thus I'd prefer an 8 with rare centering and a softer corner over an 8.5 with sharper corners and centering that is barely within specified parameters. For while PSA tracks the pop data of each grade, we do not have pop data on how many 1976 Bretts have say '10' centering.

If the 76 Brett had subgrades, I wouldn't be surprised if there were fewer examples with perfect centering across all grades than there are 9s.

Lastly, image focus is another thing to consider with this card.

geezz that 9 is wildly over graded. Love the 7

now that is a nice 9

@stevek said:
<<< Quality or Quantity >>>

Quality definitely - Do a deal for the upgrade.

I would do the deal. Many of us look for 8.5's that we think have shot at a 9 so you will always have bidders.

@balco758 said:
I currently own 3 PSA 8s and a 9 is out of my reach. Have an oppty to get an 8.5 which will likely be a ~1:1 swap (cost wise) for the 3 8s. Sell the 3 8s, buy the 1 8.5.

What would you rather have, the quantity or the quality? Is an 8.5 really that special. (Note, POP is 25 (9s) and 2 (8.5s)

There's only one sale on VCP but the 8.5 sold for more than 3x the PSA 8 price. However, there are some weaknesses in the 8.5. So you may be best waiting for a better example.