Mid-Grade Collectors

[jchcollins]

My ‘56 #135 with some paper loss on the bottom right corner, but otherwise VG-ish and nearly perfectly centered. This card in a PSA 8 centered is between $10 and 15K. I figure on the Bay mine is probably a $350 card...not sure what real value I gave up for it at the time, I got this in a trade when I was about 13. But also to the point of just how exponentially different in price tag truly high grade vintage can get. You guessed it...I’ll take my card!




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[seanofjapan]

I'm basically in total agreement with what....everyone else here has said.

I'll take lots of VG-Ex cards over 1 or 2 Nrmt-mt cards anyday.

I would also add that there are a couple of ways in which, aside from price, mid grade cards are objectively superior to high grade ones.

1) You can actually hold them in your hands without freaking out about your breath affecting the molecular structure of the corners (or to whatever extent condition conscious people go with obsessing about such things). I love flipping through cards. If I had a pile of 56 Topps cards in high grade I would be very uncomfortable doing that, but with a bunch of mid grade ones I can go crazy. Great! (behold my flipping through a pile of 54 Bowmans without care: https://baseballcardsinjapan.blogspo...i-collect.html )

2) The cards actually look like they have a story behind them. When you see a beat up old card, you know that some kid really liked that card back in the day, maybe brought it to school in a back pocket or something, flipped through them with friends, etc etc. Its very compelling! A stack of pack fresh cards in contrast are boring - they've just sat on a shelf somewhere for the entirety of their existence. Nobody ever loved them enough to get them worn out. Its extremely depressing actually.

[hcv123]

But not entirely.

Firstly I will say that centering, surface (creases, etc), and registration are WAY more important to me than corners. Moving on - it really depends on the card and it's scarcity. For readily available cards, I draw the line somewhere between 7 and 8 (rarely 8.5) - The price jump on most readily available cards from 8 to 9 is usually astronomical with often times very little difference in appearance. Add to that the inherent subjectivity to the process and I as I'm sure many of you have seen lower grade cards that look better than the same card at higher grade. There is consideration to value and resale and I believe that lower grades of more readily available cards over time have less of a chance to hold their value than higher graded equivalents.

Now onto more obscure or rare cards - to me the card trumps the condition on these - not only would I jump on a mid grade copy of some, but would be overjoyed for almost any copy - I do have a handful in my collection and love them as much or more than my more highly graded more commonly found cards.

I am working on mid grade Pirates team sets from 1952-1973 with my kids - The only ones we have or are getting graded are the 1952 Groat rookie and the 1952 High numbers(4's-6's) - the rest are/will be raw. Let me tell you - trying to find those 52's centered without surface damage is quite a challenge! Anybody know someone who wants to sell a mid grade 1952 Bartirome for the price of the common it should be without the one crazy guy buying them all!?

[profholt82]

I don't really care about the money side of the hobby. Slabbing cards and investing and all that just doesn't interest me. That's not to disparage collectors who are more into the investing aspect of the hobby, it's just not for me, that's all. I tend to go after affordable copies of cards I like that look good displayed on my bookshelf or wherever. I'm not super picky or anything, but I generally prefer centered cards without creases. I don't have any graded cards, but I'd say that most of the more expensive 50s and 60s cards in my collection would probably rate in the 3 to 6 range for the most part.

[Marchillo]

Originally Posted by jchcollins

My ‘56 #135 with some paper loss on the bottom right corner, but otherwise VG-ish and nearly perfectly centered. This card in a PSA 8 centered is between $10 and 15K. I figure on the Bay mine is probably a $350 card...not sure what real value I gave up for it at the time, I got this in a trade when I was about 13. But also to the point of just how exponentially different in price tag truly high grade vintage can get. You guessed it...I’ll take my card!




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Really nice Mantle - Mine is a PSA 2. I got mine on Amazon. Basically I had a lot of credit card points and even though the conversion rate on Amazon sucks, I was able to obtain the card without spending a penny. Mine is nicely centered as well but has some creasing and other issues. I'd say it presents very well for the grade. But to get that card in say a PSA 5/6 it would probably be the only purchase I made for 6 months!

I do agree with one poster - A 1956 Ted Williams in PSA 4 condition is great for me but not really a fan of say a 1975 Robin Yount in a PSA 4. That card is still cheap in PSA 7 lets say. It's all about price point for me and for 99% of cards from 1954 to 1969 I can buy cards in VGEX condition without a problem. Some exceptions would be the 56 Mantle, 55 Koufax/Clemente etc.

[jchcollins]

Originally Posted by Marchillo

Really nice Mantle - Mine is a PSA 2. I got mine on Amazon. Basically I had a lot of credit card points and even though the conversion rate on Amazon sucks, I was able to obtain the card without spending a penny. Mine is nicely centered as well but has some creasing and other issues. I'd say it presents very well for the grade. But to get that card in say a PSA 5/6 it would probably be the only purchase I made for 6 months!

I do agree with one poster - A 1956 Ted Williams in PSA 4 condition is great for me but not really a fan of say a 1975 Robin Yount in a PSA 4. That card is still cheap in PSA 7 lets say. It's all about price point for me and for 99% of cards from 1954 to 1969 I can buy cards in VGEX condition without a problem. Some exceptions would be the 56 Mantle, 55 Koufax/Clemente etc.

Thanks. My Mantle has no creases, but the corners are pretty rough. I would expect it to get either a 1 or an A for the paper loss, but have no plans to send it in.

I would agree that for most 50's and early 60's cards, VG-EX 4 is a very nice grade. Most 4's are not going to have noticeable creasing, generally they just have corner wear or other issues that are not acceptable for a 5. I have a '61 Topps Aaron right now that is a perfectly centered 4.5 and one of my favorite cards. It was really at that sweet spot where eye-appeal and price tag met.

Will agree with you that it's hard for me to look at VG or lower range once out of the 1950-60's. I'm considering doing the 1970 Topps set, and those cards in a 3 or 4 look a bit rough. The good thing of course is that it's also cheaper to get 70's cards in the 6+ range. Also I think going back to the 50's for lower grades - if you think about it, the cards then were the bigger size and the card stock was better / thicker. I think that's why some of them don't look so awful in grades 2 - 4. By the 1970's the card stock sucked in comparison and those cards got nastier quicker.

[jchcollins]

This guy...