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Sunk Dunk
Apr 14, 2021
Please note:

Some of this is based on my opinion. Feel free to berate me if you disagree. Mods, please move the thread if this is not the appropriate subforum.

Why collect baseball cards?

For me, it's mostly a nostalgia thing. For others, it's just something to do.

Is it worth the money?

No. If you buy sealed packs, you are basically buying a lottery ticket. Go in expecting to get zero return on your investment. I recommend buying singles of your favorite players, but I'm a degenerate who enjoys gambling.

I have old cards, are they worth anything?

Most likely not. 1986 to 1993 is known as "The Junk Wax Era." Card companies were overproducing cards, and MLB was over-licensing to anyone who wanted in on the profits. This caused major overprinting.

How can I tell how much my card is worth?

130point is a website that hosts a tool to view the final sale price of eBay listings. The website is extremely simple.

1. Visit https://130point.com/sales/
2. Enter your card into the search bar and click submit!

Can't find any previous sales for your card?

You can even check previous years cards (ensure that you aren't basing your comparisons off of rookie vs. first year cards, or licensed vs. unlicensed). For example, if I had a 2022 1/1 Ohtani from Topps Series 1, I would check the 2021 price.

What brand of cards should I buy?



The most important thing here is that for current baseball cards, only Topps (recently purchased by Fanatics) has the MLB license. Other products may have a license from the Player's Association, but only Topps is allowed to use team names and their logos.

MLB licensed cards are worth more and are easier to sell if you want to move on from a card. Additionally, the lack of logos on unlicensed cards tend to look worse. Many people call these cards "pajamas" because with no logos, it looks like the player is getting ready for bed time. Personally, I never buy unlicensed, but this is a preference.

Some current Unlicensed baseball card brands include:

Panini (Donruss and Select are owned by Panini as well)



Upper Deck



Leaf



At one time, mostly during the junk wax era, more companies had the MLB license. Upper Deck, Fleer, Donruss, and Leaf all had the license. If you're looking for older cards, you will not find many that are unlicensed.

What product should I buy?

None. But if you must, buy singles. If you are a degenerate like me, I recommend the following-

Low budget:

Topps Series 1/2: 2022 Topps Series 2 has a lot of interesting cards, including short prints of Julio Rodriguez and Bobby Witt.



Allen and Ginter: This is also owned by Topps. A&G was a company that made cigaratte cards back in the old days. Topps continued the brand, and it always has some interesting cards. The most unique part is probably the non-baseball player cards. You may pull an auto of one of your favorite celebrities.



Medium budget:

Anything Bowman: Bowman is a Topps brand that focuses on propsects. Typically a prospects "1st" card is the most sought after. This is always a risk as prospects rarely pan out.



Stadium Club Chrome: Stadium Club (also Topps) is a sweet set that focuses on interesting stadium photos. It often includes good looking action shots and is a good bang for your buck.



High budget:

Topps Triple Thread: Medium high end product. The set usually includes cool relics and autographs of top players.



Topps Definitive: Ultra high end product. Lots of on card autographs and numbered cards.




Should I get my card graded/What is a graded card?

There are several companies that specialize in grading cards. The main 3 are PSA, Beckett, and SGC. Cards are graded on a scale of 1-10. Highly graded cards command more money for several reasons:

1. It is hard to identify the condition of a card from pictures only.
2. It guarantees authenticity for the buyer.
3. The cards are serialized, meaning you can search the code on the card case and see the entry and population report.

https://www.psacard.com/
https://www.gosgc.com/
https://www.beckett.com/grading/



How do I know what products are coming out next?

There are several websites that track release dates, as well as card checklists. I recommend one of the following:

https://www.blowoutcards.com/
https://www.cardboardconnection.com/
https://www.beckett.com/news/category/baseball/baseball-card-checklists/

Final Note:

I'm sure I'm missing something here, so I will edit this periodically depending on our needs.

Sunk Dunk fucked around with this message at 01:57 on Aug 9, 2022

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Sunk Dunk
Apr 14, 2021
To kick off the thread, here are some of my favorite cards in my collection. Nothing too fancy:

1909 T206 Rube Waddell:



Ty France Independence Day rookie:



Julio Rodriguez 2019 Bowman Sterling die cut:



Ichiro Bowman's Best rookie:

camoseven
Dec 30, 2005

RODOLPHONE RINGIN'
Hell yea, baseball cards are awesome. Reading about cards, talking about cards, ripping packs, organizing your cards, trading, looking at them, all of it rocks.

I echo the sentiment that ripping packs is a bad idea and you should only buy singles. That said, today I was in two group breaks and cracked my own GQ blaster. I got jack and poo poo, but it sure is a rush!

Sunk Dunk
Apr 14, 2021

camoseven posted:

Hell yea, baseball cards are awesome. Reading about cards, talking about cards, ripping packs, organizing your cards, trading, looking at them, all of it rocks.

I echo the sentiment that ripping packs is a bad idea and you should only buy singles. That said, today I was in two group breaks and cracked my own GQ blaster. I got jack and poo poo, but it sure is a rush!

I think we might be the only baseball card guys here but maybe we will trick more people into wasting money.

Shrecknet
Jan 2, 2005


back in 2006-2008 I actually owned a baseball and magic card shop, so I can speak to some of the Financials of the industry.
there are a few major b2b distributors like gamus and dacardworld but for the most part you're buying direct from topps/ud by the case with your case limit set by previous years outlay

of special note if anyone is tricked into sports card collecting: there are two parallel lines for every product, the "hobby" release (direct to hobby stores) and the "retail" release to big boxes like target.

the base sets are identical but retail has far fewer inserts ("hits") per box and are never worth it unless you're buying for kids that just want cards of their favorite players

I'll post some of my favorite cards I've gotten over the years but I'm more into oddball poo poo and weird pictures than actual 1/1 cut autos and such

SilvergunSuperman
Aug 6, 2010

Someone did hockey breaks for a while, nothing wild just a handful of boxes from varying years. It was so much goddamn fun and a lot more affordable while still scratching the gambling itch part of it.

For me, seeing another person hit a sweet card live and get excited is drat near as good as finding it myself.

Omnitrix
Aug 14, 2008

Jacob likes air cooled VW's
Started collecting again at beginning of the summer, just picking up a few packs at Barnes and Noble of Topps cards. Just looking for my favorite players/team. Finally got a Vogelbach card. I love that meaty boy

Tatsuta Age
Apr 21, 2005

so good at being in trouble


Cool thread, I have a shitload of old cards in a binder I should probably split into a more manageable size. Maybe that would be a fun weekend project.

My dad got me the 1986 topps set right after I was born and just gave it to me when I got married a couple years ago. I can't believe he just had it stored away for so long, and it was a really cool thing amid all the emotion of that weekend.

If this thread is expanded to baseball memorabilia in general, I've got a lot more cool baseball stuff and a shitload of bobbleheads, but not sure if you're trying to keep it scoped just to cards. One of my most prized possessions is a baseball bat (and glove, but I am an idiot and it's super smudged up now) from when I got to go to a baseball camp during the all star weekend in 2000, and got a ton of signatures and pictures with dudes like Vida Blue, Harmon Killebrew, Manny Sanguillen... some of the all time greats.

camoseven
Dec 30, 2005

RODOLPHONE RINGIN'

Shrecknet posted:

back in 2006-2008 I actually owned a baseball and magic card shop, so I can speak to some of the Financials of the industry.
there are a few major b2b distributors like gamus and dacardworld but for the most part you're buying direct from topps/ud by the case with your case limit set by previous years outlay

Now that Fanatics owns everything they're trying to cut out those B2B distributors completely. We'll see what that does to prices, some people are freaking out.

quote:

of special note if anyone is tricked into sports card collecting: there are two parallel lines for every product, the "hobby" release (direct to hobby stores) and the "retail" release to big boxes like target.

the base sets are identical but retail has far fewer inserts ("hits") per box and are never worth it unless you're buying for kids that just want cards of their favorite players

This is not really true anymore. There are fewer parallels usually in retail, but the odds are similar and there are chaseable retail only parallels like Bowman Mega Box Mojo Refractors. Retail is popular enough that people will buy up all the stock at Walmart or wherever and scalp it online!



SilvergunSuperman posted:

Someone did hockey breaks for a while, nothing wild just a handful of boxes from varying years. It was so much goddamn fun and a lot more affordable while still scratching the gambling itch part of it.

For me, seeing another person hit a sweet card live and get excited is drat near as good as finding it myself.

I've been looking for a good hockey break, but it seems like the only ones doing them in the offseason are in Canada and I don't wanna pay the shipping!!



Tatsuta Age posted:

If this thread is expanded to baseball memorabilia in general, I've got a lot more cool baseball stuff and a shitload of bobbleheads, but not sure if you're trying to keep it scoped just to cards. One of my most prized possessions is a baseball bat (and glove, but I am an idiot and it's super smudged up now) from when I got to go to a baseball camp during the all star weekend in 2000, and got a ton of signatures and pictures with dudes like Vida Blue, Harmon Killebrew, Manny Sanguillen... some of the all time greats.

:justpost:

Tony Phillips
Feb 9, 2006
I'm an older (50) goon that collected more or less right in the middle of the junk wax era. Opened packs with an older brother in 77-79 but was too young to really know anything other than "opening packs is fun" Got back into it on my own by 1982 and was pretty heavy into it up until 1989. A particular friend and I got the point that we were setting up tables at card shows by 87 or so. Beat the Hell out of working at McDonalds in high school. But even as a teenager I could see the writing on the walls regarding long term value - if you went into a retail store in 1988 I guarantee they had approximately 5000 boxes of Donruss wax and rack packs all over the store. So I started buying some older things that I liked.

At work blah blah blah, but I'll try to take some pics of a few favorites and post some content. Some good, some bad, some WTF. I absolutely assure you that in 1987 I was the only 16 year old kid in America with a near complete Don Mossi card collection.

Actually do have a few questions for those in the current scene. Professional grading wasn't really a thing to my knowledge when I was collection. I know a few things I have are worth grading but really don't know how many should I ever feel like sending them in.

camoseven
Dec 30, 2005

RODOLPHONE RINGIN'

Tony Phillips posted:

Actually do have a few questions for those in the current scene. Professional grading wasn't really a thing to my knowledge when I was collection. I know a few things I have are worth grading but really don't know how many should I ever feel like sending them in.

Many local card shops will do consultations, which would probably be helpful to you. It's expensive to get things graded so you probably don't want to do it if it's not worth it. LCSs will frequently do group submissions, too, which can cut down on the price, or you can get a membership with a grading company if you're gonna be doing a ton.

Also I'm a snob and only really trust PSA and Beckett, but there's a TON of graders out there now that others respect.

Tony Phillips
Feb 9, 2006

camoseven posted:

Many local card shops will do consultations, which would probably be helpful to you. It's expensive to get things graded so you probably don't want to do it if it's not worth it. LCSs will frequently do group submissions, too, which can cut down on the price, or you can get a membership with a grading company if you're gonna be doing a ton.

Also I'm a snob and only really trust PSA and Beckett, but there's a TON of graders out there now that others respect.

I actually got off my rear end last Summer and went to a local shop here to ask if they'd be willing to go through some things with me to determine which cards would be worth the time and money, but lol. The second I pulled up and saw how many people were in the store I knew they wouldn't have time. Talked briefly and was told when to try to come in for such a thing but it was pretty much impossible with my work schedule.

My brief Googling in the past warned me of the costs which is absolutely why I'd want someone to go through them with me first. A lot of the things I'd consider are late 50's through early 70s. But more or less - as expected for cards a teenager was buying - the cooler the card the lower the condition. Off the top of my head - I have a 66 Mantle that is a no brainer. But a 62 Aaron that would probably come back a 2 or 3 at best? That's the kind of thing I'd need help deciding on. Someday I'll give it another go.

camoseven
Dec 30, 2005

RODOLPHONE RINGIN'

Tony Phillips posted:

I actually got off my rear end last Summer and went to a local shop here to ask if they'd be willing to go through some things with me to determine which cards would be worth the time and money, but lol. The second I pulled up and saw how many people were in the store I knew they wouldn't have time. Talked briefly and was told when to try to come in for such a thing but it was pretty much impossible with my work schedule.

My brief Googling in the past warned me of the costs which is absolutely why I'd want someone to go through them with me first. A lot of the things I'd consider are late 50's through early 70s. But more or less - as expected for cards a teenager was buying - the cooler the card the lower the condition. Off the top of my head - I have a 66 Mantle that is a no brainer. But a 62 Aaron that would probably come back a 2 or 3 at best? That's the kind of thing I'd need help deciding on. Someday I'll give it another go.

Ah yea that sucks. You might try emailing them to set up an appointment, that's what my LCS does. Or if you have an idea of what you wanna grade you could post a list and we can try to help. Sometimes with older cards like that Hank it's not even the actual grade you're looking for (though higher is better, obviously), but just having it authenticated will make your money back no problem

Edit: it seems like there's gotta be people who do consultations over zoom, though I don't actually know of any. Maybe Google that?

camoseven fucked around with this message at 16:05 on Aug 9, 2022

camoseven
Dec 30, 2005

RODOLPHONE RINGIN'
Ok so like I have mentioned in the N/V thread, I was into collecting many years ago but sold out. Got back in about a month ago. There's a few things I regret selling (some cool vintage stuff and a LARGE collection of Steve Pearce autos cause I loved him as a Pirate. Couldn't believe it when he won the WS MVP with the Red Sox). Anyway I don't regret most of it cause most of what I had was trash, cause I was young and poor and stupid and bought crappy poo poo. BUT NOW I am older, wiser, and significantly richer, so I've spent a real stupid amount of money the past few weeks restocking. Here are some of my favorites:



PSA 10 Travis Swaggerty auto off ebay for less than what it would have cost me to buy raw and grade myself. There's a bunch of 10s out there, but I'm still pumped. He's a cool player that has overcome some injuries and could be The Real Deal. Also he has a great name.



Ke'Bryan Hayes Bowman Sapphire rookie yellow parallel /50. So sick, I love when the parallel matches the uniform color. I got this from a group break I did a few weeks ago (one of the rare times I didn't lose money on a break lmao)



Another one I got from a break, but this one was a random team. Probably the most valuable card I've ever pulled, though the Cole Hamels rip card /99 I got from Allen and Ginter a million years ago might give it a run for it's money. This has a code on the back I can scratch and submit to Topps and they'll send me the card. They do redemptions for a lot of reasons, the most common being the player just didn't get around to signing before the product needed to ship. There's also a theory that they do it to encourage people to break boxes instead of save them, since the redemptions have an expiration date. I'm currently in talks to sell this, but if I don't I'll probably redeem it just cause I've never had the opportunity before and I think it's neat!



Max Kranick encased rookie auto from Topps Pristine. Max isn't a world beating prospect, but that's ok. Pristine is a product that has cards already encased in holders when you open the box, and I just wanted to have one. This was like 7 bucks including shipping, so no big deal if he doesn't pan out. TINSTAAPP.

I actually like inserts more than autos, usually, but I haven't gotten a full set together yet. I'll post when I do. Currently chasing the See The Future die cuts from 22 GQ, mostly cause I love die cuts and I think crystal balls are cool.

Tony Phillips
Feb 9, 2006
Well poo poo. Just got home from the vet and got some confirmation that my cat has lymphoma. Not much in a "take pictures of cards" mood tonight. Here's one though - the previously mentioned 66 Topps Mantle. Roughly 60/40 off center, but pretty decent otherwise. One of the few that I assume to be clearly worth getting graded.



My dad bought this for me for my 17th birthday. It was $50, which was a mind boggling amount to spend on a card to me at the time. Not to him though. My dad was rad as Hell. Don't even really remember why I wanted a nice Mantle card so much as he was of course well before my time. Really wanted a '59 but something in a similar condition at the time was roughly twice as much.

RCarr
Dec 24, 2007

https://www.topps.com/2022-topps-x-...Email%20Openers

Is still like this worth getting? I’m a huge Yankees/Jeter fan, so it would be cool to get, but is this destined to be worthless?

Shrecknet
Jan 2, 2005


never buy packs

especially never buy direct-to-consumer packs for $50 each

camoseven
Dec 30, 2005

RODOLPHONE RINGIN'

Tony Phillips posted:

Well poo poo. Just got home from the vet and got some confirmation that my cat has lymphoma. Not much in a "take pictures of cards" mood tonight. Here's one though - the previously mentioned 66 Topps Mantle. Roughly 60/40 off center, but pretty decent otherwise. One of the few that I assume to be clearly worth getting graded.

Sorry to hear about your cat!!! That's a sweet card though, grade it for sure

camoseven
Dec 30, 2005

RODOLPHONE RINGIN'


Collectors are very mad that Tatis got popped for PEDs. Every group I'm in is full of people trying to dump his cards for anything they can get

Sunk Dunk
Apr 14, 2021

camoseven posted:



Collectors are very mad that Tatis got popped for PEDs. Every group I'm in is full of people trying to dump his cards for anything they can get

Bahahaha. That's one thing I kind of hate about this hobby. Anyone that's not a lock HOF is not worth money, and anything anyone cares about is how much money their stuff is worth.

camoseven
Dec 30, 2005

RODOLPHONE RINGIN'


I don't really want to explain the utter degeneracy that is WhatNot, but I would like to show y'all this insane hit I just got in a break

Sunk Dunk
Apr 14, 2021

camoseven posted:



I don't really want to explain the utter degeneracy that is WhatNot, but I would like to show y'all this insane hit I just got in a break

wow nice hit. is this some kind of degenerate break gambling website? don't tempt me now

camoseven
Dec 30, 2005

RODOLPHONE RINGIN'

Sunk Dunk posted:

wow nice hit. is this some kind of degenerate break gambling website? don't tempt me now

It's livestream shopping and it's fully insane. You bid in the app on items that are selling NOW NOW RIGHT NOW, and the presenter and chat are hyping everyone up to spend money. There’s also zero friction in buying cause your CC and shipping address are hooked up already, and there’s no confirmations screens or whatever. Just a big-rear end button with a dollar amount that says BID NOW.

They sell lots of stuff on there, but for things like baseball cards they'll either do group breaks (usually with some kinds of incentives for bidding X amount of dollars), or singles sales (card gets put on cam, you get a couple words about, auction goes for 30 seconds).

It's apparently huge in China. WhatNot is the main one in the States, but Amazon is working on their own version (and they already own Twitch)

So anyway for this one it was a box of Bowman Hobby, a box of Tier One, and a pack of Pristine. I spent about $100 on 3 teams and got this auto, plus a Phillies RC auto and a few other decent hits.

Captain Invictus
Apr 5, 2005

Try reading some manga!


Clever Betty
was pointed towards this thread for some possible assistance. I've copy-pasted the post I made in another baseball thread here:

I've semi-recently gotten a bunch of 1960s sports cards(mostly baseball, a smattering of football) from a deceased family member who had them stashed away since their childhood. I've been going through them and sent in a bunch to get graded, got one of them back(it was absurdly pricey to do so for that one so they get it back to you appropriately quickly) and I was wondering, is there any chance of Pete Rose getting admitted to the hall of fame? I've got a few rookie cards of his, had one graded and plan to have the others as well, and I'm not too knowledgeable on baseball. Is there a chance they'll change their mind and admit him after barring him way back when, or should I just sell these things whenever I can? If he did get accepted, would the value of this sort of thing go up a lot?



there were about a half dozen shoeboxes jam packed with cards and baseball coins. I put'em into about ~6 proper card boxes and dug through them as carefully as I could, found a bunch of really nice stuff. Not gem mint stuff, but, well, that pete rose was about the level of quality of about half of the cards in there.




there's a sports memorabilia thread but, like, it has 22 posts in it over the course of almost a year, so I'm not sure if there's a better thread to ask about this stuff.

also, is there some sort of easy scanning way to quickly inventory the cards I have, I think there's an app for magic cards that you just slide a card under a phone's camera and it'll recognize it and add it to an inventory app, I think? is there one for baseball cards? that'd make figuring out what all I have specifically a lot easier than specifically hand-sorting and inventorying it all.

the reply I got in that thread, well, that answers the first part of my post I suppose:

camoseven posted:

Can I interest you in the relatively new SA Baseball Card Thread??

edit to actually answer the questions: You've got some sick cards there that are worth a fair bit of money. Pete Rose will never, ever, not in a million loving years, be admitted to the hall of fame. He's still out there being a real piece of poo poo, too, so you might wanna sell now before he opens his dumb mouth again (though their values will likely keep going up, slowly, forever, unless he does something else really heinous before he dies)
I had seen his name trending on twitter and dreaded clicking it, doesn't surprise me he's a real dipshit idiot even to this day

Kirios
Jan 25, 2010




I personally don't collect cards anymore, but this is an awesome thread idea. I'll start lurking and living vicariously through the rest of you!

Sunk Dunk
Apr 14, 2021

Captain Invictus posted:

was pointed towards this thread for some possible assistance. I've copy-pasted the post I made in another baseball thread here:


If you're looking to sell, I recommend pulling out all the big names (which I see you've mostly done), then check 130 point for raw sales. I wouldn't take them to a card shop, because you will likely get fleeced, unless you don't care about getting good value.

If you're looking to just collect, I'm not too up on the actual cataloging of cards, but I've heard "Center Stage" is a good app for doing so. I'd check that out.

You've got some awesome stuff there for sure. I am jealous

Captain Invictus
Apr 5, 2005

Try reading some manga!


Clever Betty
yeah, I'm looking to sell, I'm looking to get new siding on my house and with the repairs it also needs I've been getting quotes of ~80,000 dollars, so I definitely need to get as much as I can for these cards. I've sent about 60-some-odd cards in to get graded, the following cards(as well as a single magic card of one of the worst cards ever made that I want as a novelty grade):



I'm kinda bummed the pete rose didn't grade at a 7, it's really really nice shape, and the difference between a 6 and a 7 is around 1500-2000 dollars in value.

that's only mostly from the 1963 box, and a few others. The price to get everything graded, shipped, insured, etc was about 2 grand, but considering the return on the Pete Rose Rookie, that covers the entire cost of everything else. I've still got two more of those and like 10 more willie stargell rookies to send in, like 20 roberto clementes, etc. there's some good money in here, there's a TON of dreck that's like, a buck a card, but I'm sure once I've gotten everything worth grading done I can sell the bulk for a few hundred at least.

I'm definitely not going to some pawn shop or corner card store to offload them quick, unless they're willing to give me enough to pay for siding my house for the lot, I'd rather piece it out on ebay or other sites, if I can sell stuff like the pete rose without getting clobbered by ebay's 10 or 15% cut, I'd love to.

the coins, there's a SHITLOAD of them as shown in the picture, but a lot aren't in great shape even if there's I think 1 or 2 of every coin possibly, and the coins aren't worth a whole lot, the most is like 200 bucks for a mickey mantle, which isn't even worth grading unless it's pristine. I've got a few nice ones but it's 50 bucks minimum to grade any of them, so looks like it's a bulk sale or possible cobbled together complete set for this bunch.

also, my stepdad clearly had a few players he HATED as a kid, as almost every single one of their cards have devil horns, goatees, and angry eyebrows drawn on them. luckily he didn't hate mickey mantle or willie mays. :v:

Captain Invictus fucked around with this message at 03:46 on Aug 19, 2022

Sunk Dunk
Apr 14, 2021

Captain Invictus posted:

yeah, I'm looking to sell, I'm looking to get new siding on my house and with the repairs it also needs I've been getting quotes of ~80,000 dollars, so I definitely need to get as much as I can for these cards. I've sent about 60-some-odd cards in to get graded, the following cards(as well as a single magic card of one of the worst cards ever made that I want as a novelty grade):



that's only mostly from the 1963 box, and a few others. The price to get everything graded, shipped, insured, etc was about 2 grand, but considering the return on the Pete Rose Rookie, that covers the entire cost of everything else. I've still got two more of those and like 10 more willie stargell rookies to send in, like 20 roberto clementes, etc. there's some good money in here, there's a TON of dreck that's like, a buck a card, but I'm sure once I've gotten everything worth grading done I can sell the bulk for a few hundred at least.

the coins, there's a SHITLOAD of them as shown in the picture, but a lot aren't in great shape even if there's I think 1 or 2 of every coin possibly, and the coins aren't worth a whole lot, the most is like 200 bucks for a mickey mantle, which isn't even worth grading unless it's pristine. I've got a few nice ones but it's 50 bucks minimum to grade any of them, so looks like it's a bulk sale or possible cobbled together complete set for this bunch.

also, my stepdad clearly had a few players he HATED as a kid, as almost every single one of their cards have devil horns, goatees, and angry eyebrows drawn on them. luckily he didn't hate mickey mantle or willie mays. :v:

Good poo poo! You are on the right path then. Please update us when you get the grades back, it will be interesting to see!

Captain Invictus
Apr 5, 2005

Try reading some manga!


Clever Betty

Sunk Dunk posted:

Good poo poo! You are on the right path then. Please update us when you get the grades back, it will be interesting to see!
Absolutely! it's been an interesting path, it's fascinating to see how different getting cards graded and getting coins graded is. Alongside the cards was a box he left my mom that was full of old coins and getting 68 coins graded, regardless of age or value, was 10 bucks a coin. meanwhile, card grading is priced based on how much the card will be valued once it's been graded, so the pete rose rookies are 300 bucks a pop unless they're PSA10 which would be like 1000 or whatever, and poo poo garbage cards are 18-30 bucks depending on if there's a sale. it's a real racket the card guys have going. I got to sit down with a coin grade company rep who had a blast digging through the box of coins looking for hits that he would suggest I get graded(he picked out 68), meanwhile with cards I'd have to travel to New Jersey or further to find a convention where they'd even deign to show their faces for in-person grading and consultation. I got the coins back a few days ago and they had a pretty decent turnaround time for economy grading, about 2-2.5 months for the 10 dollar tier and not a lot extra for return shipping, whereas the cards are minimum 3 months for economy and like 100 bucks for return shipping.

camoseven
Dec 30, 2005

RODOLPHONE RINGIN'
That's all extremely cool and l am also jealous lol.

Many people are unhappy with card graders. I don't think you mentioned which company you're using? SGC seems very popular and accepted now, and might be cheaper/easier than PSA or Beckett. Also local card shops frequently help put together grading orders and will do consultations. Might be easier than finding a convention.

I'd be interested in a raw Stargell rookie in medium/low condition, so shoot me a PM if you wanna try to work something out.

FlamingLiberal
Jan 18, 2009

Would you like to play a game?



I am a special kind of sicko who collects hand-signed cards. A lot of them I’ve gotten in person myself over the years. Right now I probably have about 6-7 thousand signed ones. I have been collecting since the mid-2000s.

Cavauro
Jan 9, 2008

drat, that's a lot. Can i see some of your signed cards? If not that's ok. in storage or don't want to or something like that

camoseven
Dec 30, 2005

RODOLPHONE RINGIN'

FlamingLiberal posted:

I am a special kind of sicko who collects hand-signed cards. A lot of them I’ve gotten in person myself over the years. Right now I probably have about 6-7 thousand signed ones. I have been collecting since the mid-2000s.

That's pretty cool, though I hope you're not one of those guys with massive binders at minor league games trying to get 45 bowman firsts signed at once lol

I recently found a few cards from when I was a kid, including a hand signed Carlos Delgado minor league card. I have no recollection of receiving that but it's pretty neat!

FlamingLiberal
Jan 18, 2009

Would you like to play a game?



camoseven posted:

That's pretty cool, though I hope you're not one of those guys with massive binders at minor league games trying to get 45 bowman firsts signed at once lol

I recently found a few cards from when I was a kid, including a hand signed Carlos Delgado minor league card. I have no recollection of receiving that but it's pretty neat!
No I usually put like four cards out so that I have one for myself and I trade the rest to others who also collect

Every year I try and finish the Topps Heritage Minors set. It tends to get expensive.

camoseven
Dec 30, 2005

RODOLPHONE RINGIN'
Nice that seems very reasonable.

Here's that Delgado I mentioned. I also picked up this Maz auto the other day. I don't usually like unlicensed cards, but a Maz auto /25 for five bucks was a deal I couldn't resist!

edit: ahh the team the Delgado card is from is right outside Tampa, so that makes sense cause I had a bunch of family down there when I was a kid

camoseven fucked around with this message at 13:47 on Aug 19, 2022

FlamingLiberal
Jan 18, 2009

Would you like to play a game?



Yeah Leaf and Panini stuff is not licensed

Apparently Fanatics was able to get all of the leagues to give them exclusive licenses. They then bought up Topps.

camoseven
Dec 30, 2005

RODOLPHONE RINGIN'

FlamingLiberal posted:

Yeah Leaf and Panini stuff is not licensed

Apparently Fanatics was able to get all of the leagues to give them exclusive licenses. They then bought up Topps.

Yep. The whole thing is corrupt as hell cause MLB owns part of Fanatics. We'll see what happens over the next few years. Fanatics claims they want to help LCSs while cutting out big distributors, but they also own Lids and have started stocking hobby boxes there...

Tony Phillips
Feb 9, 2006
That batch of 1963-66 Topps is just nuts. A lot of time and effort to do it right, but you'll end up with some nice money when you're done.

Was wondering where all the pics of the '63s were, but "off being graded" is a good answer.



Side note to the original question - Pete Rose should never ever be admitted to the Hall of Fame. Him being a complete dipshit rear end in a top hat off the field isn't even really a factor. The cards are still worth plenty, but never miss a chance to point out that Pete Rose is a piece of poo poo.

Captain Invictus
Apr 5, 2005

Try reading some manga!


Clever Betty

Tony Phillips posted:

That batch of 1963-66 Topps is just nuts. A lot of time and effort to do it right, but you'll end up with some nice money when you're done.

Was wondering where all the pics of the '63s were, but "off being graded" is a good answer.
sure, here's some pictures of much of the at least minor hits that hasn't been sent in yet(because dropping another 2-3 grand on grading before the first batch has come back is not something I want to do just yet)




soon as I started seeing mickey mantles and the like, I broke out the sleeves and toploaders because I wasn't taking any chances, luckily I play/deal in MTG so I had plenty on hand

Captain Invictus fucked around with this message at 22:14 on Aug 19, 2022

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Tony Phillips
Feb 9, 2006
That bottom row of Stargell rookies reminds me of something. Sadly they're in a box in a friend's garage multiple states away so no picture.

Tales from colleting in the junk wax era....

Fred McGriff had a decent enough 1987. A friend's dad told us he thought he was going to make it and we should grab some of his cards. Grabbed a few 86 and 87 Donruss since those were the only cards for him yet. Then when the 88s came out and he had Fleer and Topps cards as well - I bought a box of 400 1988 Fleer Fred McGriffs. I think I paid 3-4 cents each.

It looks something like this, but about 20x


For a while the monthly Beckett guide had the card at a buck or so, but when you're 16 you don't really think or care about "how the Hell am I going to sell these?" The answer is "you won't" And considering the era of cards - 493 Home Runs or not, a box of 400 Fred (Major League Super Star) McGriffs isn't worth a whole lot in 2022.

Typing this up makes me remember a couple other can't miss rookies that in hindsight sure as Hell could and did.

Myself and a lot of others bought plenty of Joey Meyer cards based on reports of a single home run.

Youtube would break my drat brain in 1988.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z00iMx8hM5s

And I swear for a while some dealers in my area just wouldn't sell Gary Thurman cards at all. 3-4 times Beckett? Nope. This kid's gonna be huge.

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