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Old 07-24-2018, 04:23 PM
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Al Jurgela
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Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: South Carolina
Posts: 648
Default Agree

Quote:
Originally Posted by samosa4u View Post
$5,000 USD for a Pele card in 2015 was crazy money and 99.99% of collectors would never have done this.

]The answer is PSA[/B]. When collectors started seeing these Pele cards in PSA holders, they went bonkers. Do you think those Pele cards on Heritage would have brought in those prices if they had been in SGC holders? Definitely not. Collectors want PSA.

Now the thing that bothers me is that PSA has been closing the door on some of these popular soccer sets. For example, they no longer grade the 1958 Titulares set, and this is very bad. This set has the true rookies of Pele, because it was issued before the Quigols. I've tried to get PSA to reverse their decesion on the Titulares cards, and they have been very polite with me, but so far their answer remains a "no." They are also no longer grading the 1947 Nannina cards, and this set has the Ferenc Puskás rookie. This is another blow for soccer cards.

The question we should be asking here is this: what will PSA do next? What if they decide to stop grading the Quigols? Remember, the #109 Pele has been driving the vintage soccer card market, and if the company shuts the door on this set, then we are in BIG trouble!

That's my take on this whole thing
Very good points... and I agree on almost all fronts. I venture to say that I am one of the largest soccer card collectors in the USA and have graded nearly exclusively with SGC as I prefer the holder and the people.

While I admit that I am primarily a collector and do not plan to sell anytime soon, when you are buying things you should always think about the exit and therefore, I am also an investor (and especially in what I deem "golden" cards - rookies of the top cards where I have many copies in various grades).

When I sell my dupes on eBay, I frequently get questions on why they are not PSA graded... this leads me to believe that you are correct that the market generally wants PSA versus SGC or others.

I have roughly 1,000 cards that I am thinking of submitting to PSA just to see how it goes. It may be good for the hobby to get a few Cruyff Palirex rookies in PSA holders (right now there is just one) and some other key rookies so that at least some of these cards are "out there". I do that that PSA will likely want to be long on the soccer trade as it is a growing market and should bring more international business, however, so let's see.

Frankly, while I love the guys at SGC, it has been extremely painful to educate them and get the cards in their system (let alone the custom cuts). Frequently they have my submission for more than 6 months. I live with it because I am not a flipper and I really like the holder and to support the guys there, but I have questioned myself about it potentially being a fools errand in the long run.

I would like to know why PSA stopped grading the Titualares cards. I have a few that they graded and they seem appropriately graded (PSA1s and PSA 2's) and while they rate them as hand cut (probably out of caution), I do not believe that they were. Do you happen to know why they stopped grading these cards. That would be important (to me at least). I have to believe that these are isolated cases, although quite unfortunate ones given the importance of the cards.
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