Grading questions (various) with photos

[Mesquite]

Thanks for the replies. Please excuse my ignorance on the lingo, but what does registry set mean?

swarmee: if you wouldn't mind explaining, could you describe what takes this card (ignoring the centering) down to EX-5 that you mentioned (I'm assuming that would be the grade you'd give it, ignoring the centering)?

There must be something I'm not understanding about the PSA description of corners. They use the word "fraying" down through grade 6, then they use the word "rounding" for grade 5 and below. Is that the key point here, and these corners would be considered rounded rather than frayed?

To me, the corners look more like they are slightly crushed (for example the card was set on the corners), whereas "rounded" would to me imply that some material has been permanently eroded away. So that was my thinking for them being more in the "frayed" category rather than "rounded."

Just out of curiosity, is there standard level of magnification that graders use?

[swarmee]

Originally Posted by Mesquite

Thanks for the replies. Please excuse my ignorance on the lingo, but what does registry set mean?

swarmee: if you wouldn't mind explaining, could you describe what takes this card (ignoring the centering) down to EX-5 that you mentioned (I'm assuming that would be the grade you'd give it, ignoring the centering)?

I didn't look at the card too hard, I was just theorizing that if it was a 5, it would be a 5(MC). I think it would be more likely to be a 7(MC) looking at it further. As to something getting two qualifiers, I had never seen it. But AUTH(QUAL) is not the same as 7(MC)(ST) which I thought was what begsu was proposing.

http://www.psacard.com/PSASetRegistry/

Take a look around the link. Dial down to the 1952 Topps Baseball set. You can see that there are OVER 200 COLLECTORS trying to complete this set in the best condition possible. The top set has a 9.01 GPA with 100% completion, meaning they've put together this 65 year old set in MINT condition average for all 407 cards. Pretty amazing!

Some would say that PSA's set registry has boosted the overall value of all vintage cards, because making people compete to have the best set of all will get them to open up their wallets. As in, a PSA 10 Nolan Ryan 1978 Topps just sold for $17K, rather than the $20 it may have sold for 10 years ago ungraded.

I am working on two registry sets, for two tobacco issues that are not commonly collected (T51 College Series and T56 Emblem Fraternal series). If you go into the Non-Sports or Multi-Sports, you can even see scans of all the cards on the PSA website that I've uploaded. It's fun, but grading fees can become excessive. ;-)

[begsu1013]

yes, i am number 7 on the 52 topps set w/ pack, actually just got bumped down to number 8. so, these are not the droids you are looking for. move along, move along...

my psa registry sets link is listed below....it's pretty neat. you can do player sets, rookie sets, yearly sets, type sets, whatever your collecting addiction/fix requires....

but yes, i was sayin that there are labels out there that do say 3mc w/ stain written on the bottom line of the flip out there. they aren't common but they do exist and are usually found on older cards...

[Bestdj777]

I've never seen the multiple qualifiers either. I was wondering what they do. And, OP, I was really just pondering but realize my comments may have seemed a little harsh. I see nothing wrong with grading--I have a Mantle registry and have submitted a couple of cards for grading (high value cards for insurance purposes or for resale).

For whatever it is worth, some people like the miscut cards. I'll pick up reasonably priced, miscut cards if they have part of a Mantle card showing.

Oh, and welcome to the board! I look forward to reading your posts.

[Mesquite]

No problem Bestdj777, and thanks for the welcome.

Here are a couple other cards I'd appreciate some grading guidance on.
1974 McCovey #250, first at regular size (looking at the one in the upper left), then zoomed front and back:







The front centering is 85/15 which would be a PSA 5 best case for centering.
As far as staining on the back, PSA says "very slight" for 8 and 9, "slight" for grade 7, and "minor" for grade 6. Which of those 3 stain levels would this be? It stands out more when you zoom in, that's for sure.

For the corners, PSA 8 says "1 or 2 corners with very slight fraying." Would this card meet that (just as a grade for the corners, realizing the other things will drop it overall)?

But I'm not sure how to combine all those into an overall grade.


and also this 1970 Munson #189.





Centering is good, and on the corners it seems that if you look closely, 3 of the corners have a very slight fuzziness to them. So does that make it at most a PSA 7 overall? There might also be some sort of print imperfection in the gray part on the face of the card (or maybe it's a defect in the print stock not the printing itself)...is that at a level that it would get dinged?

I have to say, I'm thoroughly confused on PSA's corner grading consistency. I've seen ebay cards with 4 sharp corners and no other flaws grade at a PSA 5, and quite a few card that only grade 6 or 7 but have 4 sharp corners and no other apparent flaws.

Thanks for any tips.

PS, thanks for the PSA registry links. A person could spend waaaay too much time browsing through that.

[begsu1013]

my opinions:

mccovey: 5(st)
munson: 6

[swarmee]

The Munson could even get a half-point bump for better than average centering for the grade, or it could get a 7 straight.
And although PSA has semi-well worded descriptions of grades, there are times when the grades you get back don't make sense. At first I thought one of the stains on the front of the McCovey was a pinhole as well, which would have dropped it to an automatic 1.

If you decide to apply for oldbaseballcards, their grading scale goes like this:
http://www.oldbaseball.com/funstuff/Gurugrading.htm