Professional Card Grading

There are several companies that grade cards and memorabilia professionally. Some of them have gone out of business in the past few years because there were too many such businesses jumping on the bandwagon. The top 3 are PSA, Beckett Grading, and GAI. There are several others that are very good at what they do, but the big 3 have pretty much cornered the market. Personally, I only use one-- PSA. They have a reputation that is unsurpassed and 9 out of 10 collectors or investors would rather have a PSA graded card than any other graded card. If you've ever put graded cards on your eBay "Watchlist" you have noticed that PSA cards consistantly sell for much more than any other card grading company. Of course, PSA does not grade cards for free, but once you join their Collector's Club, you should reap the rewards if and when you decide to sell your cards. You can go to PSA's website at psacard.com and have a look. I refer you back to my previous Post"Today's Cards vs. Yesteryear" where I showed an example of how your graded cards could be worth many more times the "Book Value" of raw cards.

Have fun out there!

Mint, Near Mint, etc - Grade Cards Yourself

OK, card grades....There are specific criteria to determine a card's grade, or condition. If you can write this down or memorize it, then you'll know what the dealer or seller is talking about. You'll also know if the dealer or seller is trying to put one over on you.....

Mint (MT): A beautiful condition card that has only one minor flaw-- such as a very slight wax stain on the back, a minor printing imperfection, or slightly off-white borders. The centering should be 65/35 to 70/30 or better on the front and 90/10 or better on the back.

Near Mint (NRMT): Card has just slight surface wear visible upon close inspection. There may be slight fraying on some corners. Picture focus may be slightly out of register. A minor printing blemish is acceptable. Slight wax staining is acceptable on the back of the card only. Most of the original gloss is retained. Centering must be about 70/30 to 75/25 or better on the front, 90/10 or better on the back.

Excellent-Mint (EXMT): Card may have visible surface wear or a printing defect which does not detract from its overall appeal. A very light scratch may be detected only upon close inspection. Corners may have slightly graduated fraying. Picture focus may be slightly out of register. Card may show some loss of original gloss, may have minor wax stain on the back, may exhibit very slight notching on edges and may also show some off-whiteness on borders. Centering should be 80/20 or better on the front, 90/10 or better on the back.

Excellent (EX): Very minor rounding of the corners is evident. Surface wear or printing defects are more visible. There may be minor chipping on edges. Loss of original gloss will be more apparent. Focus of picture may be slightly out of register. Several light scratches may be visible upon close inspection, but do not detract from the appeal of the card. Card may show some off-whiteness of borders. Centering must be 85/15 or better on the front, 90/10 or better on the back.

Very Good-Excellent (VG-EX): Corners may be slightly rounded. Surface wear is noticeable but modest. May have light scuffing or light scratches. Some original gloss will be retained. Borders may be slightly off-white. A light crease may be visible. Centering must be 85/15 or better on the front, 90/10 or better on the back.

Lower grades from here are Very Good (VG), Good (GOOD), and Poor to Fair (PR-FR). If the card looks beat up then it will fall into one of these catagories and in reality won't be worth very much. But there is a market for them if they are very rare items (such as from the 1880's), and could be worth a lot even in low grade.

*****Picking on eBay Sellers again! Some, the crooked ones, will be off a full grade when describing their card. Sometimes two full grades, or they will give vague descriptions, saying something like "Looks nice!" Another hint: The more exclamation points !!!!! that the Seller uses, the more he's trying to convince you that's it's a real bargain. Don't fall for that nonsense.

Have fun out there...But be careful.

Deceptive eBay Sellers...A Black Eye on the Hobby

I've been ripped off in the past because some eBay Sellers are either ignorant of how to grade a card, or they're being vague on purpose, or whatever. This was before I got wise to their game, and now I ask them specific questions about the card's condition long before the auction ends. I'm going to name some eBay Sellers that have sold me cards that were not as described in the auction. These are just a few:

(555)

kevino35

truckinman1113

nolansport

intergalactic

lebrju
jercole17
escards
manana1024
sjscout
markssportscards
cotuit-kettleers
uncanned_heat
$stuff4less$

Not all of the above are crooks, they just don't realize, or possibly care about, the importance of conditioning. But the dishonest/greedy ones will do things like this:

A) Take a bad scan on purpose, or alter the scan, making it appear that the card has sharp corners.

B) Photograph the card from a foot away in order to hide it's condition.

C) Claim they found these things in the attic and don't know if they have any value (yeah, right).

D) Give a skimpy description of the card.

E) Say vague things like "looks nice!" or "see scan for condition."

F) Go on & on about how the winning bidder better pay quickly or they'll leave Negative Feedback.Update: Sellers can no longer leave Negative or Neutral Feedback.

G) Have over-the-top Shipping & Handling charges.

***AWARD WINNERS***

Worst eBay Sellers of 2007

************************
fritschcardsauctions

BMW Sportscards

Let's take the first one- you may also know them as the famous Larry Fritsch Cards. If you want to buy worthless reprints or pay the Mint price for VG-EX cards, then these are the guys you want. They have a huge card shop in Stevens Point, Wisconsin and claim to have over 65 million cards in stock. Of course, about 60 million of those cards are from the late 80's & early 90's when the card companies were manufacturing billions of cards. Worthless. They steal, sorry, 'make' a lot of their money from the uneducated, or unsuspecting collectors that walk in the door. One of their favorite activities is to take a rare old photograph of Babe Ruth or somebody, run off a few hundred copies and sell them to people that don't know any better.

BMW Sportscards eBay ID: bmw_cards -- These guys are the ultimate price gougers. You can go to their eBay Store and see PSA-graded cards with prices that are double, sometimes triple what PSA-graded cards usually sell for. At this writing they have a 1959 Topps baseball card of Felipe Alou (card #102) that's been graded by PSA as a 9, or Mint. SMR (Sports Market Report) is the magazine that PSA puts out listing hundreds of cards that they have graded and what the average sale price would be. That '59 Alou, at PSA 9, sells for about $400, on average. But BMWsportscards wants $2,000 for their card. That's right, two...thousand...dollars.

If you've ever been burned by an eBay Seller, you probably have been tempted to leave Negative Feedback. Of course they in return will leave Negative Feedback and hurt your Positive Feedback pecentage. My advice would be to try and resolve the problem first with the Contact Seller option. If your dealing with a dishonest Seller, he'll ignore you or send you a nasty or rude reply because he doesn't care. If that's the case you should send your concerns to eBay itself.

The good news is that the following eBay Sellers do a good job with sportscards, that is, the descriptions match the card you won:

bbdiamondsareforever
petorti
4_sharp_corners_store
centralcitycards
zindlers
kmmcards
steves-sports-cards-la
markirodenko
minnesotateasurechest

Some of the above eBay Sellers might stick it to you with S/H charges, but they give you decent cards. You should keep in mind that it only costs the Seller .59 cents postage to put a card in a top loader and envelope and mail it to you. Some spend a little more, using a bubble mailer or a Delivery Confirmation slip (.75 cents). You should always get insurance if the card/item is expensive or valuable.


We hope this was useful to you.


Have fun out there!

Pssst....Here's the biggest ripoff on eBay--

The biggest ripoff on eBay is "Shipping & Handling" or Shipping charges. I'm sorry to say that most eBay Sellers overcharge their customers for S&H, just to make more money. They figure that most Bidders don't have a clue about how much it really costs to ship items. So they use that ignorance to charge double, triple, and more than what it actually costs. It's not just sportscards, but every catagory that eBay offers. It's up to the Seller to charge S&H, and many of them look at it as a way to price gouge without anyone bothering to complain.

But let's take sportscards, as an example-
Did you know that if a Seller puts a card in a top-loader, and then a #10 envelope, mails it to you First Class, that it only costs .59cents postage? If the Seller puts the card in a Bubble Mailer and sends it First Class, then it costs $1.00 postage. Anything over one ounce but less than two ounces costs $1.34 postage. FYI: Three cards in top-loaders weigh just under two ounces, so the postage alone should be $1.34....You see where I'm going with this? If the Seller charges $2 or $3 for Shipping & Handling per card, that must be some kind of special handling, eh?

Don't let them get away with it. You can send them Nuetral or Negative Feedback for their greed, and you don't have to worry about retaliation. That's because eBay has a new policy now concerning Feedback. Sellers can no longer give Nuetral or Negative Feedback, only Positive Feedback to their customers. Maybe if they get enough bad Feedback about shipping charges, they'll change their ways.

You can also buy yourself a little Postal Scale at any large office supply place. Once you find out how much something weighs, then you can go to usps.com and find out how much you're getting ripped off.

Have fun out there, but educate yourself!

Don't Get Ripped Off on eBay

Ealier I covered how not to get taken by some dishonest sellers on eBay. As I said before, the great majority of eBay Sellers are OK folks, but there are crooks. My advice would be to educate yourself a little by buying a copy of Beckett's Baseball Card Price Guide at your local newsstand. They list pricing for thousand's of cards in there each month, but the articles are very educational. Many times I have found something in there that was new to me and I'm sure it would be of help to any collector, whether they're new to the hobby or not. The dishonest eBay Sellers that I warned about are hoping that they get a bidder that knows very little about the hobby, a "pigeon", or "mark" if you will. Don't be that pigeon/mark. Read about the subject and become an expert yourself. You can do it, I did. Another tip: If you find a card on eBay that you want to bid on, ask the Seller a question or two if you have time to get an answer back. That's because many times the scan of the card will not show some defects. So you might ask the Seller "How are the corners?" or "What about that mark that I see, what is it?" The mark could be just something on the scanner's glass. Some dishonest Sellers won't use a scanner, taking a digital photograh of the card instead. Hard to see the card's condition that way! The crook will hope that you take his word for the description of the card, to trust him. Always look at the Seller's Feedback Rating-- anything below 98% is awful. Read the Feedback Comments. The Sellers that have a high rating want to keep that good reputation, and they will answer any question honestly.

Have fun out there!

Collecting For Fun and/or Investment

I collected cards for fun until I was 38 years old. Then I wanted to see if I could be a seller of cards also, so I tried it, and liked it. Now I just buy cards as something I can resell for a profit later, and also a few for investment-- cards that might go up in value in the future. People ask me what cards I buy for investment and I tell them vintage cards in good condition will be your best bet. The cards of great players and Hall of Famers are just like blue chip stocks. The best thing to do for investment is to buy cards in Near Mint condition, then have those cards professionally graded. This could lead to the card's value increasing to about double, triple and sometimes much more. Here's an example: You find a 1963 Topps Carl Yastrzemski (card #115) at a card show or on eBay or whatever, that the seller is describing as being in Near Mint condition. You look it up in Beckett's Baseball Price Guide that you're carrying with you and see that it's listed value in NRMT condition is $40. The seller (card show or hobby shop) might have a price on it of $45 (not unreasonable), so you buy it. You send it in to a professional card grading company, let's say PSA, and it comes back to you graded at Mint 9. This would make you very happy because the value of that graded Yaz is now about $950. Pretty cool, huh? This is done over & over by savvy investors that know the hobby, and know the potential of making a lot of money doing this.

Collecting for fun: Collecting sportscards for fun is just that-- a lot of fun. You don't have to spend a lot of money if you don't want to. The advice I give people is to collect what you like. Some folks like to collect All-Star cards, Rookie Cards, cards of their favorite team, Hall of Famers, etc. Still others like to buy a factory set every year, or put a set together card by card. And putting a set together can be a great family activity. This is where those seemingly worthless Checklist cards come in mighty handy. Try it, you'll like it!

Have fun out there!

Investing Can Be Risky Business

Investing in certain cards is not without risk. Take Rookie Cards- There are thousands of RC's out there that are basically worthless. Sometimes a Rookie ballplayer will live up to the hype, like Ken Griffey, Jr., but he's a rarity. I remember when his RC came out in the debut edition of Upper Deck, and his card was zooming up in value, a 'whopping' $9 at the time. Some people were scooping them up by the truckload, even at that price, but most folks figured he was another over-hyped Rookie. At the time some people around me were saying no card of an untested Rookie was worth $9. Well, of course they were wrong, as most of us were, because he has since put up Hall of Fame numbers.

Another speculative venture was Steve Avery. When I was doing card shows in the early 90's many collectors were buying his RC, and many dealers were hoarding them. But, alas, his career tanked, and lots of folks were left holding Steve Avery cards, kindling for the fireplace.

Then there's the story of Barry Bonds. Ever since the BALCO scandel broke I've been trying to dump everything Bonds, even if it meant selling the items for a fraction of the Book Value. And now that he's been indicted by a Federal Grand Jury, well, you can just use his cards as flippers now, because they are worthless. And just like Pete Rose, Bonds will never be elected to the Hall. Wait a minute, maybe never was a bad choice of wording- Maybe in about 100 years or so, after the current sportswriters have passed away, Bonds & Rose might get in. By that time perhaps the younger generation of writers will look back and forgive the cheaters.

Have fun, kids!

Today's Cards vs Yesteryear

When packs of modern sportscards are opened these days, especially the expensive stuff, usually it's done as if a medical procedure is taking place. It's done slowly, more often than not so as to find a pristine autographed card or RC, and not to cause any damage to it. Rookie Cards of today don't have much value unless they're found inside packs of Bowman Chrome, Topps Chrome, or some other high-end product. Autographed cards have taken over the top spot as being the most desired items to find in card packs and boxes. It used to be the jersey & bat pieces that collectors were looking for, but it's the autographs that are driving the hobby today, along with the 1 of 1 inserts, usually a cut signature.
If you buy cards by the pack, the odds are not with you that you'll find something valuable. Even some boxes won't have a high value card in there, as it might state on the outside of the box something like: "One autograhed card per box, on average." Which means you could end up with a little pile of common cards, and having pissed away $120 for the priviledge.

The main reason why cards of the past (vintage cards) are so valuable today is that there are not many of them around in super condition. They were treated as just another toy, something we played with when we were kids. Sure, we collected them, but we didn't care about conditioning- we didn't hear the terms "Mint" or "Near Mint" or even care. If I opened a pack of cards as a boy in 1960 and the players were nobody that I ever heard of, I would either put them in my bicycle spokes or use them as flippers. What's a flipper, you may ask? It was a card that we would flip to land in a small waste basket, or box, or bucket in order to win a stack of cards the other players had, and/or the flippers that didn't make it into the bucket. Besides being an early introduction to gambling, the game produced a lot of cards that ended up in poor condition, which is why the better condition cards from that era are prized today. Another reason-and this one hurts- is that when we grew up and moved out of the house, Mom usually tossed out our old toys, which included the baseball cards. So that alone reduced the number of cards that were in great condition.

Have fun out there!

Unopened Material

If you collect unopened packs, boxes, factory sets, etc., sometimes a dilema occurs. Namely, when the Book Value of the cards that may be inside rises to a price that is much more than what you paid for the item. Take for example the wax pack shown here, a Topps Football pack from 1984. They were cheap when they first came out, but if you were smart enough back then to put some away, your investment would yield high gains today. I have sold these '84 Football packs for as much as $15 each on eBay. Mainly because of the Rookie Cards of Dan Marino & John Elway that might be inside. In NRMT condition the Marino & Elway RC's are valued at $80 each. Also in the set are Rookie Cards of Howie Long ($15), Eric Dickerson ($10), and Darrell Green ($10), among others. I've also sold a few 1981 Topps Football packs for as much as $17 each, mainly because Joe Montana's RC might be in there, valued at $150.

In my opinion, the best modern day unopened material to invest in would be any of the high-end products, such as Upper Deck SP, Topps Chrome, and Bowman Chrome. But today's unopened products will probably not yield tremendous value down the road like the vintage material of past years has.

There is a downside to unopened items. Let's take 1987 Topps Baseball as an example. It is as cheap today, if not cheaper, to buy a pack of these cards. First of all, the most valuable card in the set is Barry Bonds' RC, at around $8. And thanks to his indictment recently, the value of his cards are sinking faster than you can say "Jose Canseco." Secondly, Topps manufactured millions of those cards on cheap cardboard, right in the middle of the 'card glut' of the late 80's/early 90's. An additional downside to having unopened material around, is the temptation to open it. And that could lead to heartbreak- opening a vintage pack only to discover that it does, indeed contain a valuable card, but the corners are crushed because the pack was dropped long ago. Heartbreak.

Have fun out there!

America's Hobby - Still a Hobby?

Cards of the past are a window through time, an era when Baseball was king, when it was a game. But when cards were produced only by tobacco companies, children were pretty much shut out of the fledgling hobby. Card collecting really took off when popular confection makers started to produce the wonderful pieces of cardboard with ballplayers on them. The manufacturers soon realized that the cards were more popular than their gum, so they made more cards and started to produce sets. Those cards are very hard to find in nice condition today because they were just another plaything, a toy, as I mentioned in a previous Post. And today, Topps rarely puts gum inside of their products, because the cards are the thing-- it's a multi-billion dollar a year industry. With the high price of modern sportscards once again children are pretty much shut out of the hobby. Very sad. Gone are the days when my friends and I would be in front of the T.V. watching a ballgame and going through our cards to see if we had the player coming to bat or playing left field. Or if it was a football game, seeing if we had Bart Starr or Johnny Unitas, or the receivers they were throwing to.

Nowadays it's the adults that are driving the hobby, going after the Autographs, the 1 of 1 inserts, or memorabilia. Some real hobbyist's try to include their children, perhaps building a particular set together. That is very nice to see.

Have fun out there!

Card Shows, Our Favorite Places To Visit

Card shows are neat because at the larger ones, you can find what you're looking for. And I like being able to see up close the condition of cards, instead of taking someone's word for it, like on eBay or a catalog. I also enjoy going to the smaller shows, say 20 tables or so, because usually I can make a deal with the Dealer more easily. But the one that I like above everything is "The National." Held once a year in a different city, it has absolutely anything and everything collectible. It's at The National that only the best and very rare items can be found. Because the rare items are so expensive and most people like me can't afford them, I don't take a lot of money with me when I go to a large show. But it's still a treat to see something up close that I've never seen before, and in some cases I never knew existed. When I attended the 1991 National in Anaheim, California, on display there at the show was the famous T206 Honus Wagner card graded PSA-8, owned by Wayne Gretzky and Bruce McNall. Gretzky & MaNall paid nearly $500,000 for that rare card, but the last time it was sold at auction the price realized was $2,350,000. I'm sure that it will only increase in value as the years go by. The 2008 National is being held in the Donald E. Stevens Convention Center in Rosemont, Illinois, just outside of Chicago. I would love to be there! The dates for the big event are July 30 - August 3, and I'm sure that you will not be able to get hotel reservations the closer the date arrives. If you go to the National, be sure to take a water bottle with you to the Convention Center because you'll spend hours and hours there. Many collectors that attend the larger shows carry a checklist of the cards and memorabilia that they want. If you want to complete any set that you've been working on, then you'll be able to get those hard-to-find commons or whatever, at the National.

"Anybody seen a '65 Bob Uecker?"

Have fun out there!

"Are my cards worth lots of money?"

"I'm sorry, but your collection doesn't have much value." I said those words to many people when I had a card shop. Of course, they went away disappointed, but how did that happen? Because the cards they brought to me for appraisal were manufactured in the late 80's and early 90's, the "card glut" years. By the late 80's there were a few card companies in competition with each other- Topps, Donruss, and Fleer. They were making millions of cards, but they were still using cheap cardboard for them. In 1989 a new maker joined in- Upper Deck. The '89 debut of Upper Deck's product was "the shot heard 'round the world", as far as the hobby was concerened. Instead of cheap cardboard to make the cards, UD used snow-white material. But the quality of the photography is what set them apart from the other guys. And Upper Deck didn't put their cards inside of cheap wax packs, but "foil packs" to keep the cards in pristine condition. It's a classic set still highly coveted today.

Topps didn't come out with a high-quality product until 1991 when Stadium Club made it's debut. Donruss and Fleer also tried, but nothing could compare to Upper Deck's quality product. All of this made for publicity of card collecting and the public started buying, buying, buying. Topps, Donruss, and Fleer responded to the demand by making hundreds of millions more cards, mostly on the cheap cardboard they were infamous for. The glut was on. Those cards from that time are still not very valuable today, probably never will be.

Dear CollectorsHelper,

I have a Factory Set of 1991 Topps Baseball. Should I break the seal and sell the cards individually?"

-- Brian

Dear Brian, here's what you do: Break the seal on the set. Then take a stack of cards out of the box. Use about 30 cards for the stack. Get some tape and use the tape on the stack, tape it up real good. Do this for several stacks. Now you can use them for several things- as door stops, or a game of lawn toss, or even as kindling in your fireplace. The applications are practically endless.

Have fun out there...

Collectibles Are Affected By Controversy

Yes, the value of your Baseball cards, autographs, and other memorabilia will be affected by the "Bombshell" of widespread steroid use. If you have amassed a collection of items relating to a player that is mentioned in the Mitchell Report, my heart goes out to you.

Roger Clemens fans must feel like they've been kicked in the stomach right about now, but other incidents have affected other player's memorabilia too. It doesn't have to be an allegation of drug use, either. It could be something as simple as an ego-driven tirade that's widely publicized. Take Ricky Henderson, for example. In 1990 he was about to break Lou Brock's record for Stolen Bases, and his Rookie Card was zooming up in value as he was getting closer to the mark. So Henderson does finally become the new MLB Stolen Base record holder, and he's interviewed in the locker room. Ricky does his best Muhammad Ali imitation and proclaims himself "The greatest of all-time" to everyone within earshot. And he does this several times over the next few weeks, revealing something about himself that turns off the public, and the Book Value of his Rookie Card soon plummets.

As for myself, I pretty much stopped collecting modern sportscards and memorabilia when former NFL player Lyle Alzado died of brain cancer, and it became known that he used steroids. Alzado knew he was dying and told a sportswriter that he believed that his use of steroids had caused his cancer.

In the early 90's Jose Canseco was smashing Home Runs all over the place, but it was suspicion of steroid use that kept him from extreme popularity among the fans. Of course, we now know that he did indeed have some "help" hitting those dingers.

Barry Bonds went from a lean athlete to someone that now resembles The Incredible Hulk, thanks to steroids & HGH. Remember when Bonds was getting closer to Babe Ruth's HR mark of 714? Barry got upset because he wasn't being regarded as one of MLB's all time greats. He lashed out in the media that it was because he was black and was about to break a white man's record. No, Barry, it's because you are obnoxious, surly, an egomaniac, a druggie cheater, and a thoroughly disgusting individual. The biggest embarassment to MLB since the White Sox threw the 1919 World Series. I could say more, but I don't want to sound hateful :-)

And let's not forget Mark McGwire, lest Barry would think it's racism. When McGwire testified before Congress about steroid use in MLB, he had a golden opportunity to deny drug use. But he said "I'm not going to talk about the past" when asked if he used steroids, thereby letting down his fans, Tony Larussa, and everyone else that was amazed about his hitting ability. His Rookie Card's value soon fell dramatically, also.

You see, there are even more reasons to collect vintage material, when players' on-field accomplishments were really earned.

Clemens' cards will make good kindling, and you can give your autographed jerseys to the Salvation Army. Play catch with your children using those signed baseballs, no great loss now.

Have fun out there!