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HarleyQuinn

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A rumor I saw said Nat Turner made a post on social media indicating the PSA backlog is 10 million cards waiting to be graded.

Sold a big ticket item on eBay tonight so I picked a couple other cheap slabs and auto. Won a Panini Crusade Ryan Anderson card /10 that was PSA 9 for under $9 shipped. Anderson will never fetch money but he was super nice when I talked to him before a game and a card with a print run of 10 and well graded seemed like a solid PC pickup. Also won an Essentials Zach Collins rookie PSA 10 for about $20 shipped. He’s been out injured again but he plays well when not injured. In current climate it could be a steal by this time next year, worst case scenario it is the same as the base price for grading same card right now. The auto was in looking at the ridiculous prices of the Hoops Rookie Ink, I stumbled on a seller that had Suns rookie Jalen Smith for about $20 shipped. Nice signature, he was a lottery pick and has been solid the couple times I’ve seen him get minutes. In current market, seemed to make sense as young guys are one good game away from being priced out at all times now.

Mail today was fruitful because I got the Premium Stock Ja Morant that I got a solid price for a few weeks back and I got the Red /5 Bayley card from the 2020 Topps Finest. I have that an entire rainbow except the Superfractor now. The seller that had it on eBay was looking for pennies under $600 for it. I tried an offer the other day but it seemed like the lowest they would go was $350, which I’m still not comfortable with for a single card. Listing went down today, no idea if it really sold as the seller had it up months ago, took it down and put it back up. May be doing that again but I don’t have faith it will hit a price I’m comfortable with as everything in this seller’s storefront looked overpriced to me. I get setting your own price for a card that is the only one but the Chrome Superfractor of Big Show which may be one of his last WWE products ever released sold for around $80 the other day. Pete Dunne went for $70-something, which I’m kicking myself for missing because I have a lot in that rainbow too, including the /5. Granted Bayley goes for higher prices than those guys regularly but 7.5x the going price of those seems like a dramatic jump.
10 Million cards doesn't surprise me at all.

I like Zach Collins but he's just constantly been injured and never seems to stay healthy.

Yeah, in today's market there's a ton of sellers who are A: trying to set a market on their card even if it's /99 (PWCC, Probstein getting higher sales which push higher sales prices elsewhere also doesn't help) and B: ignore the general market and overprice their own card for emotional reasons because it's 1/1 or of a Bayley/Alexa Bliss/Charlotte Flair who tend to command higher prices instead of a Big Show or Finn Balor.

Another example, there's a 2004 Score Final Score SP Parallel - Troy Brown card. Serial Numbered 7/14. It's a cool card. The Ebay seller has it listed for $79.99 and 20% off gets it down to $63.99. Really? It's a cool card but it's Troy Brown, it's Score football as a brand, and it's a card from 2004. I could pick up two Immaculate /99 Autographs (one Eye Black) for $71 combined.

As for @SFH post, a lot of people treat GMA as a red-headed dirty stepchild. Even Youtube videos now are all going, "Will SGC/HGA/CGC step up and be the slabber for low-end cards," and it's like... GMA is right there and they were built on that exact reputation. If you wanted vintage, you'd sub to SGC and if you wanted low-end cards or strictly lower PC items, send them to GMA. A lot of these new people in the hobby don't seem to understand that these grading companies aren't all necessarily aiming to be PSA 2.0.

I'll be the first to say I've cooled a bit on GMA in relation to picking up BGS/PSA/SGC slabs but I'd still take them over an HGA. I don't quite trust HGA's technology and think due to the technology it'll be very, very hard to get 10s if they over fine-tune the surface grading to be too harsh, which I think they've done. I still think GMA's a fantastic alternative for picking up 80s/90s 'Junk Wax' era Rookies that look as good as their PSA counterparts at cheaper prices but all of the ACEO Custom Cards do rub me the wrong way in terms of being graded.

Made an offer of $9.99 for a 1992 Jeff Bagwell Topps #520 All-Star Rookie Cup GMA 8.5. It's a solid-looking card and PSA 10s were going for $25-$40 by comparison. Considering the high print runs, I'm fine owning just a NM card that looks good rather than paying almost 3-4X for a PSA label while the card's back is probably worse than the GMA card. But I'm a weirdo who looks at the back of cards and weighs them as equally important as the front.
 

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The Bagwell $9.99 offer was accepted so I got the free shipping out of it + saved a little bit of money :) I'll take that "NM 8.5" = "RAW" price all day, every day at that price point. Buying the card vs. the label has usually worked out when picking up GMAs so I'm happy with this purchase.
 

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A backlog of 10 million cards smells like 1991 to me.
Here's the "Pop" on 89 Griffey Jr

Upper Deck SR = 77,403(!!!!!!)
Topps Traded = 71,029(!!!!!)
Fleer = 47,322
Donruss = 31,230
Score Traded = 26,018
Bowman = 21,289
Donruss Rookies = 12,835
 

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Of all the random cards that the Allen & Ginter set include on a regular basis for some reason the card of an Egg from the 2019 set is blowing up. The base price is bearing on $50 and the parallels are going for hundreds. Man, this would be something of a no brainer to unload if I had it.
 

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Picked up this little lot of "vending stickers" with no date on them. Google has given me results from multiple decades; 1960s, 70s, & 80s with the same photos.

z0IwcVZ.jpg

R5d99mh.jpg

YoAayVT.jpg



I can confirm they're not affiliated with Topps, Fleer, Leaf, Donruss, or any other major trading card company and that they are more recent than the 1959 Fleer set. They could very well be a reproduction of something in the 1960s done at home by some bored entrepreneur. I speculate this b/c I did see someone on "Etsy" with a listing. I feel like PSA/Beckett would be the best suited to research them, but for their vintage (as in black & white print not specifically age) I feel like they'd set better in an SGC case. They're light enough that I'd feel more secure if they were sonically sealed in one of the above.

The auto complete for SGC's submission page recognizes "Norman Maurer" as a producer of collectibles, just nothing Stooges related. I have the same result on the Beckett database. PSA references something unrelated in 2014.

I'm going to do some proper scans soon and see if one of the message boards non-sports section can help out. Could be fun learning about them. Bought them on a whim.
 

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There's a very cool uncut sheet of 60 3 Stooges Cards from 1989 for around $65: https://www.ebay.com/itm/COMPLETE-U...808441?hash=item1f1f38e4b9:g:DZkAAOSw~O5gLXQI

Also found this information on a few listings: "The set — “exclusively distributed by Parssine Group, Inc.” — consists of eight (8) black and white stickers, each measuring 2 x 2.5 inches. The stickers were sold individually, at random, in vending machines at grocery stores and novelty shops in the 1980s. They are licensed by Norman Maurer Productions. The set includes individual stickers of Moe, Curly, and Larry, and five stickers of the trio in various scenes from their movies and TV shorts."

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Considering the 1980s/90s when Gas Stations, etc. were selling Sports Cards, it wouldn't shock me if Vending Machine style stickers/cards were also very popular in grocery stores, etc. I mean, I looked on Ebay and found 80s themed horror movie vending machine stickers including NOES, The Fly II, The Toxic Avenger, etc.
 
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5de330f2674de1669f40c80945bdf96e.jpg

lol - the package I sent on Saturday arrived Monday but the status changed to Delivered by Tuesday, so I apparently lucked out. I just am waiting for the email alert from PSA that the box is marked as arrived and is safely stored. Problem is after safe storage it will probably be months until they are checked in to starting in but it is that “peace of mind” that nothing has gone missing.

I misspoke when I mentioned my Finest Bayley Red /5 being the final card outside the Superfractor for the rainbow but I forgot, along with the Red, the Gold /10 hadn’t surfaced yet. One showed up today so despite decided to calm down my eBay buying, I put a bid on and will have to be ready to go all in about a week from now.
 

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There's a very cool uncut sheet of 60 3 Stooges Cards from 1989 for around $65: https://www.ebay.com/itm/COMPLETE-U...808441?hash=item1f1f38e4b9:g:DZkAAOSw~O5gLXQI

Also found this information on a few listings: "The set — “exclusively distributed by Parssine Group, Inc.” — consists of eight (8) black and white stickers, each measuring 2 x 2.5 inches. The stickers were sold individually, at random, in vending machines at grocery stores and novelty shops in the 1980s. They are licensed by Norman Maurer Productions. The set includes individual stickers of Moe, Curly, and Larry, and five stickers of the trio in various scenes from their movies and TV shorts."

1_d87d0198919fa5e711b20cdcc532010c.jpg


Considering the 1980s/90s when Gas Stations, etc. were selling Sports Cards, it wouldn't shock me if Vending Machine style stickers/cards were also very popular in grocery stores, etc. I mean, I looked on Ebay and found 80s themed horror movie vending machine stickers including NOES, The Fly II, The Toxic Avenger, etc.
Thank you!!!

During my teenage travels with my parents, somewhere between New Orleans and Eureka Springs Arkansas a rest stop had a candy type vending machine but it was sports cards in top loaders. I know we bought a Michael Irvin for $0.75 and a Troy Aikman for $1.25 (dad is a cowboys fan) and there was a Michael Jordan sealed box of something for $25 but I don't remember a credit card swipe (this was 1998) and I don't recall vending machines taking $20s in the 1990s so not sure how a customer could get it. I remember the machine but not the panel. The only time in my life I saw a vending machine of THAT style dispensing cards.

Seems the vending machines the Stooges/NOES/Fly/TA came from were similar to the ones in the lobbies of Walmart/Kmart and grocery stores, you line up 1-4 quarters, push in the money, pull out you get a sticker. Someone had to do that at minimum 8 times to build this set.

If I sub this to SGC I'm going to lean on the 1980s version on the submission form and if their research department feels this is an older version, score. If not, I have no issue subbing Stooges merch regardless of year.
 

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Good luck on the Bayley card!

God luck on your Stooges research! They look cool no matter what the story ends up being.

That's crazy about the Luka card. Will 2021-22 NT boxes cost more than Tony Soprano's house?
 

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Good luck on the Bayley card!

God luck on your Stooges research! They look cool no matter what the story ends up being.

That's crazy about the Luka card. Will 2021-22 NT boxes cost more than Tony Soprano's house?
Probably. There are cards that have been selling that were over 2X the cost of my first car (which I owned for 12 years) and others that are selling for as much as I paid for my 2019 Jeep Compass Latitude when it was brand new.

A Lebron RPA Exquisite /100 went for $76,100 via PWCC Vault. That's like 2 years' income for me! A 2018-19 Contenders Luka Doncic Gold Auto BGS 9.5 sold for $350,000... that's the price of a house depending on where you live!
 

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I cannot imagine what Prizm prices are going to look like, let alone something like National Treasure.

The Donruss boxes of basketball that have been $65 to $100 the past several years sold out for minutes at $1000 a box. People are paying $70 a pack at times. So Optic, which is usually just the shinier version of that set has to be either $1500 or $2000 which is insane.
 

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I look forward to opening some hobby boxes again somewhere around 2035.

I sold two of my top 10 favorite cards this week. The profits were good enough for me but always kinda sad to see favored stuff go. My Mel Ott rookie and 58 Mantle AS are in my top 10 now.
 

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2020-21 Panini Prizm Premier League Soccer is $725. 2020-21 Panini Revolution Basketball (releasing 3/10) is $425 right now. 2020 Panini Select Football (tentatively 3/24) is $1,500(!) while also being released into retail for the first time in its history.
 

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SGC's raised their prices from $15/Card to $25/Card now for anything declared under $500. "Having said that, our capacity building is far from over and we will be working day and night to avoid a situation where price is constantly increasing. Just yesterday, we received the keys to an additional 5,200 sq. ft. of work space, putting us at nearly 20,000 total sq ft...so far. Our goal is to surpass a daily output of 6,000 cards per day by year’s end."
 
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I guess that was inevitable with everyone else. While it is more of catching people off guard, I think the way BGS and SGC handled it by just doing it one day was a little smoother. PSA having it rumored for weeks is something that I am sure created extra traffic. I know I dumped in a bunch of cards I was submitting. And then the posts about no room at the Newport Beach Post Office due to all the PSA packages.

While a lot of people are churning, I can breath with relief until the long turnaround time now. While I think PSA didn’t get my box until Tuesday, they checked it in last night and it is stored in their secure storage.
 

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I’ve been much less active on eBay the past week, just kinda checking in on stuff for my Bayley collection popping up, mostly. Occasionally if bored looking for cheap slabs but haven’t really gone after much.

With a few more NBA products out and prices being ridiculous, I actually managed to snag a few cards of Suns rookie Jalen Smith. He was the 10th overall pick this year and showed some promise the little I saw him in the preseason. After a nine month layoff with college, no training camp and getting COVID, he hasn’t done much yet, thus he is very underpriced for someone his age and draft position. I got the Certified rookie for $3 and was able to get both an autograph and the Donruss Blue Lazer (/49) Press Proof rookie about $20 a piece. Hoping he pans out but I feel he is one of the guys with the most upside with affordable prices.
 

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This message came into my email earlier tonight
Dear PSA Customer,

The tidal wave of submissions headed to PSA has turned into a tsunami of shipments coming ashore at our local USPS.

Frankly, too many for the local branch to handle.

So the PSA Security Team has sprung into action. Our team is physically going to the USPS branch to safely deliver the thousands of customer packages directly to PSA headquarters.

This means that your package is safe. You do not need to take any action, despite the messages you may have received from USPS.

Your shipments will be stored at our secure facility and we will diligently itemize each shipment over the coming week, at which time you will receive an email update and your order will appear in your PSA online account.

We thank you for your patience during this period of elevated activity. Your cards are in good hands.

Thank you for your patience,

The team at PSA

As I said earlier, I lucked out because all my stuff got checked in rather quickly, in the scheme of things. But as I said before, based on this wild influx I can’t imagine this stuff comes back any time soon.
 

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My BGS/PSA Facebook guy has an $8/card bulk deal with CSG as of this week. I might send a single just to try them out.

My SGC guy was able to secure $20/card for small scale submitters. If I send him 100 cards he can push them through at $18.00 per. So all these 1920s Tobacco cards I just bought are going to probably pile up as they're a lot lower priority.
 

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Not a "Sports Card" but couldn't pass up on this for $14.99 off Ebay. It's a Wizard World Con Box cover variant of Batman Adventures #12 but Harley/Ivy is up there as my 1A "ship" (with Buffy/Willow) + it quasi-homages the classic Alex Ross Batman: Harley Quinn cover.

PS: Seeing comics I own that I picked up for like $10-$20 IIRC in NM condition off MileHighComics.com back in the day now going for $70+ on that same site (nevermind Ebay). Holy Cripes!

s-l1600.jpg
 

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Comics are one of the markets that have jumped but I don’t know if they’ve jumped as noticeably as other collectibles during the pandemic. Guessing with the plethora of variants and even graphic novels and ereader services. One of my good friends was making a run on getting first appearance comics of a lot of characters last year. He was getting Morbius and Red Guardian, I remember distinctly. He’s the one who took his dad’s comics and had like a Black Panther first appearance in amazing shape and I’m thinking a Galactus first appearance.
 

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I never realized Brock Lesbar actually got a few NFL cards during his run with the Vikings. Disappointed I didn’t think to pick those up from 2004 to 2007 when I probably could’ve acquired them dirt cheap. Even the most common one is still roughly $70 now.
 

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Fortunately the buyer flaked on me a few years ago, I have the Leaf Rookies & Stars in BGS 9.5 condition. Put it on Facebook marketplace when it was still exclusively meet up. Buyer agreed to $50 then ghosted me. Don't remember exactly why I took it down, I'm sure something on WWE TV. So now it's just in a box with a bunch of other unsorted graded cards.

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Fortunately the buyer flaked on me a few years ago, I have the Leaf Rookies & Stars in BGS 9.5 condition. Put it on Facebook marketplace when it was still exclusively meet up. Buyer agreed to $50 then ghosted me. Don't remember exactly why I took it down, I'm sure something on WWE TV. So now it's just in a box with a bunch of other unsorted graded cards.

QhWigQ7.jpg
Well, if you find it, it may be worth moving now. I saw a nice Upper Deck card and couldn’t find this but was finding raw versions of this same card going for at least $70
 

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I know what container it's in, but the container on top of it exceeds my current lifting weight limit. Myslabs would be the perfect platform to move it, assuming the small user base thought to search Brock Lesnar.
 

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Danced a little too close to the edge just now in the Myslabs discussion forum. No deals are to be made there, the beauty of the platform is prospective buyer offers, seller accepts, counters, or declines. No notes, no begging. Another user laments that he made an offer on a Matt Stafford card, it disappeared, and is not in the recently sold archive. Head honcho dude said that he just killed 7 profiles for improper image standards and one of them dealt heavily in the new Rams QB. I chimed in and said, "Oh you're looking for Stafford are you?" and vaguely referenced my stuff (have 4 cards scanned into one listing). Dude asks to PM prices and I quickly encouraged him to please go make an offer on the site and keep it above board. Haven't heard from him. Guess I'm asking too much :p.
 

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Danced a little too close to the edge just now in the Myslabs discussion forum. No deals are to be made there, the beauty of the platform is prospective buyer offers, seller accepts, counters, or declines. No notes, no begging. Another user laments that he made an offer on a Matt Stafford card, it disappeared, and is not in the recently sold archive. Head honcho dude said that he just killed 7 profiles for improper image standards and one of them dealt heavily in the new Rams QB. I chimed in and said, "Oh you're looking for Stafford are you?" and vaguely referenced my stuff (have 4 cards scanned into one listing). Dude asks to PM prices and I quickly encouraged him to please go make an offer on the site and keep it above board. Haven't heard from him. Guess I'm asking too much :p.
Yeah. It's unfortunate that a lot of these sites seem pretty good initially and then issues quickly start cropping up that make it harder to sell or buy forcing you to go back to more reliable/consistent places.
 
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