Should I focus my collection on PSA 8's and 9's?

[stevecarlton1972]

I grew up collecting Baseball Cards as a kid in the 80's, and was part of that generation that saw the ups and downs of the market. I eventually sold my whole collection in the 90's after going to College.

I've just recently got the itch to collect again and learning about the PSA Graded cards (something that didn't exist when I collected). Obviously everyone wants the perfect collection of PSA 10 cards, but the prices are just way out of my range for most cards.

My focus will be on 1980's Rookie Cards and do you guys think it is smart to build my collection on PSA 8 and PSA 9? I want to say that I'm not collecting to resell in a few years as I want to build a collection to hand down someday to my kids and my nephews. Do most of the average collectors like me have a collection filled with PSA 8 and 9's? Do they hold their value well, because I assume the rich are buying the PSA 10's and everyone else is buying PSA 8 and 9's, so there will always be a market for them?

Interested in everyone's thoughts and please correct me if you feel my opinions/assertions are way off base as I'm just getting back into collecting, so I'm learning all about the industry after 20 years.

[bnorth]

I would recommend buying ungraded cards and storing them in penny sleeves and top loaders. If you are not selling them soon grading could be a complete waste of $. The grading companies are constantly changing slabs and flips. They have great marketing and always promote their latest and greatest form of their product. So when/if you do sell you want you cards in the latest greatest version of their product.

[jasondeanmartin]

I agree with bnorth, but also take pricing into consideration. Sometimes, you can purchase a graded 8 or 9 for the price of an ungraded copy.

Someone may have an ungraded copy of X's rookie card for $5 + $3 shipping while another seller may have a PSA 9 for $10.00 with free shipping. In that case, I would purchase the graded one for the extra $2.

[HasselhoffsCheeseburger]

I'd say it's case dependent. You yourself don't care about resell, you're buying for the pleasure and enjoyment of reliving your collection. But you said you also want something to pass down to your kids and nephews so future value is also a concern.

Are you talking about an '86 Topps Traded Tiffany Bonds? Yeah, I would think PSA 8's and 9's will hold their value. Are you talking about an '87 Topps Bonds? No, I would not put any money into an 8 or 9. You get my point. There's no way to blanket all cards with one statement.

I think you'll have to familiarize yourself with PSA's pop report and get a feel for what the thresholds are for certain cards at a certain level. That, combined with getting a feel for how much unopened product for that particular card is still out there will help you make your own educated guesses as to which grade and price point you're comfortable getting into.

For the most part though, the general thought is that there was an infinity amount of product produced in the 80s so many people are only interested in PSA 10s for much of the regular issues. There are pros and cons to this. One of the pros is that there are issues that weren't produced in bulk that get swept up into the stigma and are available for great value now when you can find them.

Arthur

[Peter_Spaeth]

To Arthur's point, in my opinion where a Tiffany (or Glossy) version is available I would get that one. Most are pretty inexpensive relatively speaking, and the production numbers are a fraction of the regular issues.

[ls7plus]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

To Arthur's point, in my opinion where a Tiffany (or Glossy) version is available I would get that one. Most are pretty inexpensive relatively speaking, and the production numbers are a fraction of the regular issues.

+1, except for the '87 Tiffanies. Production was known to be about 60,000 for those. Some good rookies in the '91's, which had a print run of 2-3,000, if you don't mind steroid guys (two of whom are now in Cooperstown).

Best wishes,

Larry

[stevecarlton1972]

Originally Posted by HasselhoffsCheeseburger

I'd say it's case dependent. You yourself don't care about resell, you're buying for the pleasure and enjoyment of reliving your collection. But you said you also want something to pass down to your kids and nephews so future value is also a concern.

Are you talking about an '86 Topps Traded Tiffany Bonds? Yeah, I would think PSA 8's and 9's will hold their value. Are you talking about an '87 Topps Bonds? No, I would not put any money into an 8 or 9. You get my point. There's no way to blanket all cards with one statement.

I think you'll have to familiarize yourself with PSA's pop report and get a feel for what the thresholds are for certain cards at a certain level. That, combined with getting a feel for how much unopened product for that particular card is still out there will help you make your own educated guesses as to which grade and price point you're comfortable getting into.

For the most part though, the general thought is that there was an infinity amount of product produced in the 80s so many people are only interested in PSA 10s for much of the regular issues. There are pros and cons to this. One of the pros is that there are issues that weren't produced in bulk that get swept up into the stigma and are available for great value now when you can find them.

Arthur

Thanks for the feedback!

These are the type of rookie cards I would be looking for at first:

1980 Topps Rickey Henderson
1982 Topps Traded Ripken
1983 Topps Sandberg, Gwynn, Boggs
1984 Fleer Update Roger Clemens and Puckett
1985 Topps McGwire
1986 Topps Traded Bonds
1989 Upper Deck Griffey

I would try to buy a PSA 9 of these cards first, but would settle for a PSA 8 if the price is out of my league (I know that an 82 Topps Traded Ripken will be more expensive then the 83 Topps Gwynn or Boggs . Does that sound like a good strategy?

[Peter_Spaeth]

Makes sense to me. Consider spending up though for a Tiffany Bonds, get a nice 8. And IMO Maddux and Johnson should be on that list.

[ls7plus]

Originally Posted by HasselhoffsCheeseburger

I'd say it's case dependent. You yourself don't care about resell, you're buying for the pleasure and enjoyment of reliving your collection. But you said you also want something to pass down to your kids and nephews so future value is also a concern.

Are you talking about an '86 Topps Traded Tiffany Bonds? Yeah, I would think PSA 8's and 9's will hold their value. Are you talking about an '87 Topps Bonds? No, I would not put any money into an 8 or 9. You get my point. There's no way to blanket all cards with one statement.

I think you'll have to familiarize yourself with PSA's pop report and get a feel for what the thresholds are for certain cards at a certain level. That, combined with getting a feel for how much unopened product for that particular card is still out there will help you make your own educated guesses as to which grade and price point you're comfortable getting into.

For the most part though, the general thought is that there was an infinity amount of product produced in the 80s so many people are only interested in PSA 10s for much of the regular issues. There are pros and cons to this. One of the pros is that there are issues that weren't produced in bulk that get swept up into the stigma and are available for great value now when you can find them.

Arthur

+1 as to pretty much all of that, along with Peter's post re the Tiffany cards that follows. Except for 1987, where the Tiffany production number has been reported as 60,000 of each card, the production was generally much, much smaller than that.

Best of luck to you,

Larry

[KingFisk]

I truly love getting copies of the cards I coveted as a kid in high PSA grade. There's something richly satisfying to me about owning a 1986 Donruss Canseco, 1989 Ripken FF, etc in pristine condition.

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[MBMiller25]

I think you have gotten some really good advice and I hope your enjoying collecting whatever grade you ultimately decided to purchase cards in. I enjoy collecting the 80’s- early 90’s for all the reasons everyone else has given. Mostly as it reminds me of my youth and simpler times. I’m like Arthur that I collect most of my stuff in PSA 10 grades, but I also see real value in PSA 9 slabs by comparison to a PSA 10. If you have the means to collect in PSA 9, I believe that would be my advice to you. It’s a great mix of value and eye appeal. If your patient you can finds 9’s that look like 10’s all day long. Enjoy the journey!