Average grade of rack pack or wax pack pull?
 

I bought a sealed 84 Donruss rack pack and a sealed 84 Topps rack pack that shows a Mattingly RC on the bottom. What is the average grade that fresh pulls from these packs usually get. All appear to be in decent shape from what I saw online. Hoping for a few 9's.

Thanks. Trying to get back in the game, it's been a long time and I'm strin trying to put some nice graded stuff together by fresh pulling. If not I'll just buy it pregraded.

Is it even worth buying new unopened packs and trying to get them graded?


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You're better off not opening that pack and having the whole pack graded by PSA. Graded packs with star rookie cards are in higher demand than just the card themselves.
It's hard to say what it should grade because you can't really see some major issues (either centering, corner wear, print defects, whatever) through a wax wrapper. You can buy a raw 1984 Topps Mantle for $4, a PSA 8 for $20 or less, and a 9 for $40 or less. If you're pulling for top grades, either open up really expensive stuff from the 60s or early 70s, or cheap stuff from the 90s to 2000s where centering is much better and there's a chance to make your money back on insert cards.
Edit: You said rack pack, there's a better chance of knowing what the card looks like (on one side), and rack pack cards are normally easy to spot corner wear on, compared to rack packs that are normally sealed much tighter. I think you're still better off getting the pack graded.

Average grade of rack pack or wax pack pull?
 

Thanks for your reply. It must be obvious that I'm chasing a pristine Mattingly rookie in the Donruss pack but who knows if it's in there. The only thing showing on it is a Ron Darling rookie that looks pretty mint so I was considering pulling it and grading it at least to try to recoup some of the cost of the pack since I can at least see it on top.

The other pack, the 84 topps, has a mattingly as a rear card. I got the pack for $11, others on eBay with his card showing are going for $40 or so. Again, I sent what I thought was my old near perfect looking 84 Topps Mattingly to PSA and it came back as a 5. I was a little disappointed so I bought this pack hoping to pull a 9 or 10 graded card from it and send it right to PSA.

I'm really not interested in grading a rack pack, as I can get them reasonably priced but no one necessarily showing. I really want the mattingly Donruss card. Thought i would take a chance for fun. If not I'll just buy one in a 9 to add to the collection.

I guess my real question is when people open these old packs, do most of the cards grade as a 9 or 10? Or have the years taken it's toll on most even while inside the packs. Not taking centering into account, are most old pack rips still near mint and worth grading.


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No, most pre-1989 cards don't come straight out of packs as Mint 9 or Gem Mint 10 cards. Otherwise, there wouldn't be nearly the premium on them that there is now. The major culprit is normally centering, but print defects, wax stains, bubble gum stains, etc will all bring the card grade down or add qualifiers. If you want to see a $14,000 box of 1973 Topps broken and turned into $1,000 in cards, look at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sbbb2iowzGo This is what busting wax can be like.

I had a couple of slots, and I think I got 3 cards and one of the wrappers. Centering got a little better in the 80s and much better in the 90s, but certain sets it's super rare to get a 10 from busting wax, like 1986 Topps with the black borders. That's why the first PSA 10 1986 Ryne Sandberg sold for over $2,000 for a $1 card. I recommend you buying the card already graded if you want a certain grade. Because mailing cards to PSA can be expensive. If it was easy, there wouldn't be as much premium for highly graded cards, because everyone would have already done it.

Psa grading racks now? You learn something everyday


Usually 8s and better from racks, depends on cemtering. The odds of a Mattingly 10 I'd say are extremely slim. Probably 0 if people know the sequencing of packs

Well, I know BBCE wraps them, but PSA probably doesn't grade them. I was talking about the wax pack with Mattingly on back.

How were people able to guess sequencing?


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Well, two ways. One is open up a case and then write down all the cards in the order they come in. Second is to realize that the print sheet is in a certain order, and the cards get sorted into a certain order based on where they were on the print sheet. So if you determine that Don Baylor is usually in front of Mattingly in a pack, then you buy packs with Baylor on the front.

Thanks for the insight guys!


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