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

[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

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by ls7plus

+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

Indeed.

[Neal]

Nice cards Peter.
Really starting to appreciate many of the modern issues and having fun buying inexpensive, high quality, nicely designed baseball cards. Love the 50s and other vintage decades, but modern is a real nice guilty pleasure.

[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.

[stevecarlton1972]

Originally Posted by 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.

Definetly, as they were the rookies that came to mind. But as you said there are Maddux, Johnson, Alomar, and I have to go through each set to refresh my memory.

I still remember the 86 Donruss Canseco was THE card to get when I was in High School, as I would like to see how that value has fallen from its peak in the early 90's?

[Peter_Spaeth]

80s eye candy 80-84

[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