AAAARGH! 5 months!

[the 'stache]

5 months I have been looking for an ungraded 1977 Topps Robin Yount that I feel could possibly grade for a PSA 9. I haven't checked the past few days. I just forgot. So I check today, a couple are close, but the centering on the best one I found just wasn't good enough because of the tilt.


Joe's Vintage sports cards. CLoser than most, but not close enough.

So, for bleeps and giggles, I checked the cards that had recently sold.



Sigh. That card has an excellent chance at being that 9. This set is ridiculously hard to get clean cards. Either the centering, or the corners and edges are chipped, or there's a diamond cut, or the inside centering is off, or the surface is scuffed. It's just hard to find a high grade in this set.

Oh well, the quest continues!

[JoeDfan]

Oh, I hate it when that happens. BUT, looking at that card, something seems slightly off to me on the bottom right border. I am not sure it would have made a 9. To me, the bottom border looks thinner than the top.
Hopefully, that makes you feel slightly better.

[CW]

I'm sure you've also seen lots of surface bubbles on these cards, many of which will prevent the "MINT" grade from ever happening.

Good luck with the hunt, Bill! (5 months really isn't all that long... )

[Shoebox]

Keep the faith Bill and good luck.

[CW]

Due to sheet placement or misalignment during the printing process, this card is very prone to tilt. Even the recent PSA 10 that ended with PWCC has a slight tilt (most evident when viewing the reverse scan). I notice the same tilt on many PSA 9s (I cheated a bit by buying a PSA 9 already graded, but it's a tough card even going that route).

Bottom line... just look at that photo on the card. The perfect capture of a moment in time and simply a great action shot. Once again, '77 Topps knocks it out of the park. Here's the PWCC PSA 10...

[the 'stache]

Thank you, guys.

Sean, I will trust your eye. Looking at it again, I can see what you're referring to. My question is how would a grader for PSA view it, and would it be worth knocking down more than a half grade or so? I've seen many cards before and after, before they've been sent off, and after they've come back from PSA, and I'm often baffled by the grades they get. So much of it just seems like a crap shoot (can we say that in this context? I hope so. I guess a mod will let me know). I've seen some 9s that I thought were 8s. I've seen some 8s that were 9s. I guess this is why cracking happens. A lot of the time, it's hoping to get a sticker with a higher number, so it can be sold for more. But I have to believe that sometimes a collector will crack just because they don't agree with the grade.

Chuck,

I agree that card's got just a magnificent action shot. It's one of my favorite Yount cards for just that reason. Since I'm building his master set as PSA 9 +, and the 1975 Topps is going to cost me a bloody fortune, I'm trying to find a 9 before it gets to PSA to save a little bit. I may go that route, too, with the '75, especially since I know if I only get an 8 back on the first sub, I can just put that into my 1975 Topps set.

You know what really does it for me on that 10? There are no print flaws at all. None of the bubbles that far too often ruin an otherwise beautiful card (beautiful submission-wise). But this one not only has no print flaws, there is no extraneous ink anywhere. No random colored pixels anywhere. The white borders of the card are perfectly white. The actual picture itself is clean. It's about as beautiful a '77 card as I've seen.

And you're right, 5 months isn't too long. It's nothing compared to how long I ended up looking for this card:



I think I spent about three years in total trying to acquire this card. It's the most gorgeous modern football card set I've ever seen. There's a great checklist for the set, too, including Joe Montana. That's a set I will eventually build...slowly. But the point is here, I never give up. Patience will be required when I start pursuing some of the tougher pre-war sets, so I should be ok for the prolonged fight.

You two guys have great eyes. I love getting feedback from you guys, as a couple extra sets of trained eyes helps me. I'd love to get Matt's input here, too.