Average grade of rack pack or wax pack pull?

[dictoresno]

Thanks for your reply. It must be obvious that I'm chasing a pristine Mattingly rookie in the Donruss pack but who knows if it's in there. The only thing showing on it is a Ron Darling rookie that looks pretty mint so I was considering pulling it and grading it at least to try to recoup some of the cost of the pack since I can at least see it on top.

The other pack, the 84 topps, has a mattingly as a rear card. I got the pack for $11, others on eBay with his card showing are going for $40 or so. Again, I sent what I thought was my old near perfect looking 84 Topps Mattingly to PSA and it came back as a 5. I was a little disappointed so I bought this pack hoping to pull a 9 or 10 graded card from it and send it right to PSA.

I'm really not interested in grading a rack pack, as I can get them reasonably priced but no one necessarily showing. I really want the mattingly Donruss card. Thought i would take a chance for fun. If not I'll just buy one in a 9 to add to the collection.

I guess my real question is when people open these old packs, do most of the cards grade as a 9 or 10? Or have the years taken it's toll on most even while inside the packs. Not taking centering into account, are most old pack rips still near mint and worth grading.


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[swarmee]

No, most pre-1989 cards don't come straight out of packs as Mint 9 or Gem Mint 10 cards. Otherwise, there wouldn't be nearly the premium on them that there is now. The major culprit is normally centering, but print defects, wax stains, bubble gum stains, etc will all bring the card grade down or add qualifiers. If you want to see a $14,000 box of 1973 Topps broken and turned into $1,000 in cards, look at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sbbb2iowzGo This is what busting wax can be like.

I had a couple of slots, and I think I got 3 cards and one of the wrappers. Centering got a little better in the 80s and much better in the 90s, but certain sets it's super rare to get a 10 from busting wax, like 1986 Topps with the black borders. That's why the first PSA 10 1986 Ryne Sandberg sold for over $2,000 for a $1 card. I recommend you buying the card already graded if you want a certain grade. Because mailing cards to PSA can be expensive. If it was easy, there wouldn't be as much premium for highly graded cards, because everyone would have already done it.