How to collect ungraded cards... safely

[JollyElm]

Originally Posted by Belfast1933

Am looking for advice on how a collector can stretch their collecting budgets by buying ungraded cards from reputable dealers... and save $$ to put into graded cards for only higher cost cards (simply to ensure authenticity)

I collect HOF baseball (trying to get one nice card for every HOFer)

Appreciate any advice on this collecting strategy.

We need more info. What exactly are you looking to do? Are you asking how to keep your costs down when buying from reputable dealers? One strategy to follow could be - when you see a card you're thinking of buying - is to check the PSA 'Auction Prices Realized' site. If you think the card meets the criteria for a PSA 6, for instance, take a look at what those specific cards sell for as PSA 6's. Then look at the realized prices of PSA 5's and so on (because no one ever correctly guesses the grade a card ends up getting). With that info in hand, you can approach the seller with real data for a negotiation. From there you can show the seller what already graded cards go for, and since the one he's selling isn't graded, that should drop the price significantly and so forth. Plus, always bring up that it doesn't matter how great a card looks, it's definitely going to come back 2 grades lower than you guessed.

It's 4am, so this was just a stream of consciousness thing happening. Hopefully, it'll provide you with some sound advice.