PSA or SGC and your experience? Baseball cards.

[Sully]

I’ve never sent in baseball cards for grading but have watched a plethora of YouTube vids on how-to and the process. Wanted to get some opinions by other card collectors that may be hanging around here.

I have a ton of raw cards and have started to review what I actually have that may be worth grading. I’ve put together my first set to send, probably going to be pricey to grade…

 

[1Evil55]

Not a bad start. I catalogued all my cards a few winters ago. I thank God my mother saved all my cards for me. I haven't sent any cards for evaluation only because I am not interested in getting rid of them. To find their worth, you should be able to get a good idea just from google. I started following a couple different FB pages dedicated. The similar horror stories would pop up regularly. Someone would send a card for eval and would get two extremely different responses depending which company it went to. At one point I recall a number of people believing the company was literally run by kids.
A few summers ago I was in a member/guest golf outing and had to play against some guy from the cubs by the name of Jake Arrieta. I beat him 8 of 9 holes for the record. At the time he was trying to make his kid insta famous by opening fresh packs of NFL cards that were from the early 90s IIRC. Jake paid $20,000/pack x 6. They were searching for a holy grail card that was valued close to a quarter million. I don't think they ever found it.
After I finished cataloging my collection I was suprised how many NFL, NBA, and NHL cards I had that I never remembered. I thought for sure those would be valuable based on their age and the couple of players I had. The most expensive card was worth about $2.50.

 

[Sully]

Nice! Yea, I've begun the breakdown process, I have tons of cards, primarily baseball. This was my first box worth that I filtered down based on potential values and condition.

For example, I have 2x 1958 Topps Satchell Paige, I'd say one is a 5-6 and the other an 7-9 based on the PSA grading. The market values vary wildly between raw and graded.

Satchell Paige #220 Prices | 1953 Topps | Baseball Cards

www.sportscardspro.com

https://www.psacard.com/auctionprices/baseball-cards/1953-topps/satchell-paige/179278

My thing is what would be the best bang for the buck, PSA or SGC, based on some real world experiences. I've read PSA commands a high post-grade price but wanted to validate.

 

[RDATLTE]

I've got a bunch that I need to go thru. I know that I've got a couple of OJ rookie cards. My father stole all of my good Yankees stuff. I have no idea where they ended up. All of the neighborhood kids used to play flip. You flipped your cards out onto the ground and if your card landed on top of another card, you got all of the cards that were on the ground. Was that common?

 

[ernsteeng]

A few summers ago I was in a member/guest golf outing and had to play against some guy from the cubs by the name of Jake Arrieta.

Must be a Sox fan...

 

[Roadhawk]

Professional grading cards is quite expensive and probably only worth it if you think you might have some that are really valuable. I've never done it though and like you would be open to learning more.

While I have a bunch of baseball cards (doubt any are super valuable)....what I do have is a supreme collection of magic cards dating back to the very beginning. I have a complete or near complete set of every magic set - up until about 2 years ago (I finally got overwhelmed and sort of gave it up). I also have tons of unopened product and a huge amount of promo cards and material. Much of my most valuable stuff is in safe deposit boxes and such.

Several years a ago I determined I owned about half of the top 100 most valuable cards (though only a few were top 20). It wouldn't surprise me if my collection is worth more then our house. So far I haven't sold any (have done trades in the past)...but I've considered selling some - particularly much of the sealed product I have as I'll never open and play any of it. I still do play the game and have hosted mini-tournaments for years but I've gotten burnt out on all the new product and the greed of Hasbro who owns it now.

 

[1Evil55]

Must be a Sox fan...

lol. Been a Dodger fan all my life. This year looking to shape up better than last!

 

[FLYARMY]

When I was 14 , my brother collected Topps cards. I remember he had a few Graig Nettles (Yankees) cards. They had spelled his name wrong "Craig" and they were supposed to be highly collectible. I always wondered if he still had them. I collect American coins and old paper currency. Mostly error currency. Its amazing some of the mistakes on paper money that gets out of the Bureau of Engraving. I was the security guy for a check casher and used to accept the cash deliveries from Chase Bank everyday. I would find brand new bills with errors, so therefore they are in the highest mint state and the most valuable. I always said that after I retired, I would sell my stash and buy a Corvette. Instead, I was able to buy my 5BW and still keep my collection.

 

[Roadhawk]

I often joke that I could sell a few of my magic card and buy a boat.