Sports Cards Hobby Thread 2.0

[HarleyQuinn]

Based on my experience alone, my biggest criticism is that GMA seems inconsistent. I'm not tin foil hatting it, but I do NOT see automatic 10s and wonder if they adjusted course based on that rampant allegation. I have no proof, at all. I have not had time to review the grades I disagree with and I have not been able to meet up with my buddy to give him his 10. I have no immediate plans to resub to them again for flips BUT I do have a hard time telling my friends "no" so if he hits me up to go halves again, I probably will.

Yeah, I've never really understood the "GMA just hands out 10s" argument as that wasn't the case with my submission(s) at all. With that said, I've kind of moved on from them unless it were to be a super low budget "get it in a slab with a random grade" scenario mostly because of SGC's uptick into modern & ultra-modern and the arrival of CSG. At the time I submitted it was PSA/BGS for any modern or ultra-modern and SGC for the vintage with all 3 well out of my budget cost wise, lol. GMA's cost was $5/Card IIRC at the time so it was a no-brainer in not wanting to spend hundreds or thousands at the time.

The only real negative I have towards GMA is that I have seen cases where some of their 10s are probably 9s/9.5s at one of the top three and they sometimes err on a grade higher if it seems like it could be in that 0.5 area.

Like you said, I wouldn't necessarily dissuade somebody from trying out GMA but I'm not their #1 cheerleader either, lol. I think they can serve a good niche area in the grading market and they have lasted this long, which is a testament to their business model.

 

[SFH]

Delivered my bud's half of the GMA submission and he's really giddy. We had to meet somewhere other than the card shop because he didn't want to be tempted to spend more money. He said he's already setting aside different piles for different grading companies, so he'll probably be asking me to go halves on another GMA in the future. I think as long as I don't get my heart too set on a grade and only send stuff for cheap slabbing, I'll be okay with using them again. I've listed a few things from the last GMA and am getting zero clicks. I'm pretty set that I'm going to crack the Calvin Johnson after I look over it one more time. I just don't see "6" on it.

On the Facebook group side of bulk grading, it's the same story again. Nothing for a while and then boom my guy hits me with 63 cards at once. All were no sub Economy level, some when the per card was $12 and some when the per card was $20 so my invoice is all sorts of disjointed to the point he had to relabel some of the columns so I could understand better. Some were 8 card subs some where 4 or 5 card subs. After shipping, paypal fees, and cost to scan I'm in at $16.82 per card and some of the scans I don't have a corresponding print out for. I'm still sorting through my PDFs to see if I missed something. Good chance I didn't retain a copy at some point in 2020, which scares me because that means I don't have an actual accurate number as to what is outstanding. On the side of good, I should be close to wrapped with outstanding 2020 cards now (two PDFs remain with 2020 time stamps).

 

[HarleyQuinn]

My latest SCI article covering Long Term Holds vs. Short Term Gains is now live!

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Whoof... The bankruptcy court in CA denied PSA's request to send the cards back to their owners. This could take years to get resolved and there's no guarantee that the cards will ever go back to their original owners.

Use middlemen submitters to grading companies at your own discretion. Also calls into question what happens if say a vault service such as PWCC declares bankruptcy, what happens to those cards? Are they then used to help pay back the banks, etc. that PWCC would owe money to?

 

[SFH]

To HQ's article, you make a lot of valid points. I do still struggle in bidding wars trying to regain some vintage HOF stuff I had to sell in 2013. I'm yet to replace my rookies for Rice (BGS 7.5), Marino (BGS 8), Elway (BGS 7), and Bradshaw (BVG 6.5). Once things get a little more stable with my 2020-21 grading orders popping, I might just hit some "buy now" listings.

To your point about middlemen. My preferred group subber has a circle of maybe 15 of us based on his interactions with us through the years in the hobby and we're able to use his goodwill in the hobby for grading through our preferred two TPG companies. He limits us to how many we can each sub because after my 2018 wreck settlement I sorta sent him way more cards than he could handle (BGS was still $7/card through his help). I do sometimes have concerns about something happening to him and I don't get my cards back. Nothing to do with his character, I just know we're all mortals and shit happens and he's a one man show.

The Facebook group I use, I've been in it since 2015 or so. The group moderator actually has his kid and nephews on board with organizing and sorting things and there's never been an error on his part and he quickly fixes the errors the TPGs make. He's already shown me a great deal of credibility the first time 10 subs popped at once unexpectedly and he let me do installment payments. If mortality would screw his system up, I at least know his helpers have enough experience to, in time, get things situated.

My honest opinion is the group sub organizers take on a bigger liability than the individual subbers. I had a sub of 8 rookie cards that took from August 2020 to this year pop. None were still on my team. One guy, not even in the NFL anymore. Since the service isn't paid until completion, there's a realistic possibility someone in a similar situation would say, "meh" and get banned from the group. The group mod would still have to pay BGS/CSG/PSA/SGC for their service. Fine and dandy if he gets stiffed on a hot card, he can probably sell it via his own platforms and recoup his losses. Not good when SFH submits 8 copies of a 7th round QB being converted to tight end and then flames out.

I've been sneaking plugs in for my FB guy when I do my youtube videos, and I've also considered doing just a straight hobby video blog discussing why I prefer using a group service to self submitting.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

I've been sneaking plugs in for my FB guy when I do my youtube videos, and I've also considered doing just a straight hobby video blog discussing why I prefer using a group service to self submitting.

Good stuff. My article is also kind of aimed at an "ideal" world where injuries/divorces/life stuff doesn't force a sell off scenario but it also showcases how tough it can be to sometimes "buy back" a card after the fact depending on one's budget as your case shows.

The straight up video sounds like a great idea tbh. May get some backlash but it'd be an interesting perspective against all the people saying to self submit, etc.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Snagged the following from ThreeStarsSportscards over at Beckett as I continue to try and target super low serial numbered stuff (within reason). I've tried filling my cart up with "rookie cards" and ultra-modern players... and I just don't care, lol so I'm more than satisfied just building my collection around serial numbered HOFers or future HOFers.

Total cost was $38
2009 Topps Black #20 LaDainian Tomlinson /54 - $7.50
2011 Panini Gold Standard Platinum Gold #117 Roger Staubach /25 - $10 ... A smidge high but it's a Staubach /25 of a brand where their cards are pretty thick stock
2012 Panini National Treasures Century Silver #121 Darrell Green /25 - $6
2013 Crown Royale Test of Time Gold #12 Ed Reed /25 - $6
2017 Panini Plates & Patches Green #167 Roger Staubach /25 - $6
2018 Certified Diamonds Mirror Red #1 Adam Vinatieri /99 - $1.50!
2019 Prestige Old School Xtra Points Gold #10 Jack Youngblood /50 - $1!

 

[SFH]

Finally able to put this together.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Crazy video showing re-graded Pokemon cards where some of them got bumps in centering and surface, which is nuts. Proof that grading is so, so subjective and the reliance on it for increased profitability in terms of getting a 10 or not is not a good path for the hobby IMO.

 

[SFH]

My white whale PSA 2 1959 Stooges Curly (bought April 2021) came back from BGS as "possible tampering" and they did not grade it. I regret cracking it now.

 

[SFH]

I do have some exciting (to me) BGS and CSG returns in the realm of Saints and WWE cards returning over the next few days. Depending what goes on with finals, I might not reveal the contents on any of my platforms until the unboxing video hits youtube. I'll go ahead and spoil one thing, a Daniel Bryan WWE relic card got HAMMERED on surface and edges and came back a CSG 6. That's the problem with thick cards, though. At least I can bitch about someone other than Panini. Also, CSG added subgrades for no charge on these and they're the flips from before the change. So, not sure what's going on there.

In negative news I got hit with a chargeback on Paypal for a March 2022 Myslabs sale, claiming credit card fraud. I checked the buyer's name in the Facebook Myslabs welcome forum and 12 other users are having an issue with the same buyer. Too early to tell if paypal will side in all 12 of our favors. Fortunately in my case I'm only boned out of $30 but for now my paypal is showing "negative."

Further negative hobby news, the Terry Bradshaw autographed 1970s game day program I researched for my father-in-law got kicked by by Becket Autograph service, so that's an $84 waste between item and authentication fee. F-I-L wanted it for a friend. He said if I can get a refund from eBay, it's exceeded 90 days, or Paypal (rules say try ebay first) to just keep whatever money I recover for the work I've done on his behalf and to also keep trying to find an under $100 Bradshaw auto that is already authenticated by "a company you trust." The amount of love and respect that man has for my hobby knowledge is unprecedented in my life and makes me feel woefully uneasy that I'm going to blow it again if I try for another Bradshaw. He wants something bigger than a trading card.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

In negative news I got hit with a chargeback on Paypal for a March 2022 Myslabs sale, claiming credit card fraud. I checked the buyer's name in the Facebook Myslabs welcome forum and 12 other users are having an issue with the same buyer. Too early to tell if paypal will side in all 12 of our favors. Fortunately in my case I'm only boned out of $30 but for now my paypal is showing "negative."

Further negative hobby news, the Terry Bradshaw autographed 1970s game day program I researched for my father-in-law got kicked by by Becket Autograph service, so that's an $84 waste between item and authentication fee. F-I-L wanted it for a friend. He said if I can get a refund from eBay, it's exceeded 90 days, or Paypal (rules say try ebay first) to just keep whatever money I recover for the work I've done on his behalf and to also keep trying to find an under $100 Bradshaw auto that is already authenticated by "a company you trust." The amount of love and respect that man has for my hobby knowledge is unprecedented in my life and makes me feel woefully uneasy that I'm going to blow it again if I try for another Bradshaw. He wants something bigger than a trading card.

Ouch on the Myslabs buyer. Have you also reported him to the Facebook Moderator yet?

IMO, your FIL may be better off trying to find his own Terry Bradshaw Autographed item (especially for under $100). You're not swimming in $$ and he can do his own work for a prized piece of memorabilia if he's just gonna have you do all the hard work and gift it to his friend anyway. Obviously you know more than he does but the whole point of gifting an item to somebody is you pick out the item, pay the money, and gift it not somebody else.

 

[SFH]

Picked up a 58 Mickey Mantle today. I had zero intent on spending that number but we were looking for a place to eat lunch and saw the shop. I am never in Baton Rouge. Turned out the place we wanted to eat wasn't going to open for another 50 minutes so we went kill time. I want to be friends with the guy that runs the place. No bullshit bragging about his collection nor athletes that he's met. Really humble about the stuff they do have in stock. It was a combination card/art shop and the art was mostly sports, cards, or pop culture related stuff. The inventory was limited in comparison to other shops, but the stuff they had was quality. We exchanged instas and youtubes.

Also he has prototypes of the CSG perfect 10 label that is still in development. His shop is partnering with CSG on a few things so he's got the in on their upcoming announcements. Since the things he was showing me were "TBA" I was unable to take photos but they looked AMAZING. He showed me the label his shop voted for and I agreed it looked a little better than the other example. Great experience all around.

I'm going to scan the Mantle tomorrow. There's a card show in a nearby seafood joint. I'm going poke my head in but I think I just killed my card budget for at least 2 months.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Used a discount for Rich N' Deals at Beckett and picked up several cards including the following...

2007 Topps Chrome Pro Bowl White Refractors /869 LaDainian Tomlinson for just under $4
2008 Triple Threads Gold /99 Wes Welker for $5+
2014 Bowman Chrome Black Refractor /299 A.J. Green for $2+
2016 Limited RPA /299 Joey Bosa for $5.57 (discount was taken off the whole but I'm using it for just this card, lol. Originally $13.43)
2017 Prizm Light Blue Waves /149 of DeVante Parker & Von Miller for $4+

 

[HarleyQuinn]

My latest SCI article is up about how pop counts are poor investment strategies: See Article Here

 

[Smues]

Had numerous thoughts as I ripped my boxes of 2022 Diamond Kings that I may or may not have ended up typing up here, but then I pulled a Panini Points card (400) in lieu of an autograph in a GOD DAMNED FIRST OFF THE LINE box. So now I just want the world to burn.

 

[SFH]

What's the point of having graded Joe Burrow cards in 9.5 and 10 condition if no one wants to buy them?

Local guy I know has asked me 8 times in 3 years how to A. move large bulks of cards. B. how to navigate selling on eBay and COMC and C. what price to put on a football signed in 2017 by both Alvin Kamara and Marshon Lattimore when they won NFL Offensive and Defensive rookie of the year. Today made #9 for the dual autographed football. I'm a mix of emotions. I'm glad to help a fellow traveler but I am also irritated that nothing I tell him seems to stick, especially since he took the time to load up all of his stuff and come to my place and I was able to verify he DOES have good stuff to list.

And he still thinks he can get life changing money off of the football. I had to (I tried to be nice) let him know he'd be lucky to get $900 right now with Kamara facing suspension and that anyone he would sell it to right now is banking on flipping it the moment Kamara hits the field and puts him good statistics, "you might want to hold if you can." He has read the message and not responded. This hobby breaks too many spirits. And honestly, it's getting pretty exhausting having to be the bearer of bad news to so many people. In a way I'm glad we have a card shop again and we're starting to have shows. Not to pass the buck, but I'm glad the shop owner can break the bad news about their collectibles to people instead of me all the time. And even with the local guy with the football. He has a LOT of low #'d autographed HOF stuff. Easily high $90,000 worth of stuff from the 2 hours he spent at my place. But he is too nervous to pull the trigger on listing things. 8 times in 3 years, "Hey man, how's it work with COMC again?" and literally our last dialogue in messenger right above that message is the answer.

Not really a "I need a solution" post just a "I can't sleep so I'm venting" post.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

What's the point of having graded Joe Burrow cards in 9.5 and 10 condition if no one wants to buy them?

Local guy I know has asked me 8 times in 3 years how to A. move large bulks of cards. B. how to navigate selling on eBay and COMC and C. what price to put on a football signed in 2017 by both Alvin Kamara and Marshon Lattimore when they won NFL Offensive and Defensive rookie of the year. Today made #9 for the dual autographed football. I'm a mix of emotions. I'm glad to help a fellow traveler but I am also irritated that nothing I tell him seems to stick, especially since he took the time to load up all of his stuff and come to my place and I was able to verify he DOES have good stuff to list.

And he still thinks he can get life changing money off of the football. I had to (I tried to be nice) let him know he'd be lucky to get $900 right now with Kamara facing suspension and that anyone he would sell it to right now is banking on flipping it the moment Kamara hits the field and puts him good statistics, "you might want to hold if you can." He has read the message and not responded. This hobby breaks too many spirits. And honestly, it's getting pretty exhausting having to be the bearer of bad news to so many people. In a way I'm glad we have a card shop again and we're starting to have shows. Not to pass the buck, but I'm glad the shop owner can break the bad news about their collectibles to people instead of me all the time. And even with the local guy with the football. He has a LOT of low #'d autographed HOF stuff. Easily high $90,000 worth of stuff from the 2 hours he spent at my place. But he is too nervous to pull the trigger on listing things. 8 times in 3 years, "Hey man, how's it work with COMC again?" and literally our last dialogue in messenger right above that message is the answer.

Not really a "I need a solution" post just a "I can't sleep so I'm venting" post.

Sounds like a guy who is too emotionally attached to his cards/has a fantasy of selling his cards for a ton of money but doesn't or can't put in the actual effort to do it. He missed the ideal window of like the past 50 years to sell in 2020 & 2021 and is trying to play catchup in a way that simply won't happen. After my first few messages I would've told him, "Hey, See this message," or "Hey, check out this LCS and they can help you," and just left it at that. Either he'd figure it out or he wouldn't and if he truly wants to sell his cards for money, he will do so.

We have a guy on a Discord who is constantly asking what X Card will be valued at/sell at and it's like, "Just do your own research, man. Appreciate you reaching out but you gotta put in the work sometimes and make your own guesses."

@Smues that's another reason I got away from box ripping. I got some boxes with Panini Points and it's such a bullshit scam especially when the points you get don't equal the "cost" of whatever the actual autograph card you could've gotten would be on the damn website. 400 Points can get you a Rated Rookie Auto of Jorge Lopez, Luke Jackson, Tom Murphy, Frankie Montas... and that's about it beyond a bunch of college uni dudes. There's also no Diamond King card listings, lol! At least give me a Redemption card that you may or may not even fill for me!

 

[SFH]

Was able to scratch some creative projects off of my to do list:

And a graded card reveal:

May 2022 BGS CSG reveal #1 Saints, GPK, Frank Thomas, Three Stooges, WWE, Brees rookie card reveal!

In this video I show off some recent returns from BGS and CSG. There is also a COMC purchase with an interesting story. Cards in this reveal include Drew Bre...

www.youtube.com

 

[Smues]

@Smues that's another reason I got away from box ripping. I got some boxes with Panini Points and it's such a bullshit scam especially when the points you get don't equal the "cost" of whatever the actual autograph card you could've gotten would be on the damn website. 400 Points can get you a Rated Rookie Auto of Jorge Lopez, Luke Jackson, Tom Murphy, Frankie Montas... and that's about it beyond a bunch of college uni dudes. There's also no Diamond King card listings, lol! At least give me a Redemption card that you may or may not even fill for me!

While they did ship out 5 of my redemptions in the last two weeks, I still have a ton more I expect to never see.

I've never been a fan of them giving points cards in leu of an auto, but at least previously I've only seen/gotten them in autograph heavy products, 2021 Chronicles Baseball and 2021 Contenders Baseball. Chronicles has 3 autos per box and Contenders has 6, so while it still sucked to get a points card (especially in chronicles), it was a lot easy to swallow as you at least had other autos in your box. Though I did get points'd on both products on buying single packs, but still easier to swallow. Diamond Kings has ONE auto per box, so I'd be furious if it happened to me on just a regular hobby box, but FOTL is just inexcusable.

 

[SFH]

Overall I was pleased with this opening, should have waited until I was better rested, though.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Paging @SFH

Beckett has opened Economy at $35/Card with sub grades - Shots fired hard at PSA. No Subs is $25/Card.

 

[SFH]

Facebook group sub guy had been holding a sub since econ shut down last year and just emailed me that it's on its way. Two Burrow rookies and two BVG Stooges cards (@ no sub).

 

[SFH]

SFH grumble. I won a slot in a multi box break last year for White Sox. I was able to secure 2 Luis Robert and 1 Andrew Vaughn rookie. I topped it off with a 96 Finest Frank Thomas and sent them in for BGS Economy, with subs. I didn't bother doing too much pre-grading on the LRs and AV. Only the AV Gemmed. The others are 9 and two 8.5. Further, I seem to remember circling "with sub grades" last year but I have a bad habit about not circling the copy I retain for my records, so I won't know for sure until my submission returns. Either way, he charged me for no subgrades and the prelim scans he sent are no subs. So, I'm probably really not going to be able to move these for much more than cost of grading, if that.

At least it's baseball season.

 

[SFH]

Really genuine guy I casually know sent me a text about a year ago in regards to looking at some cards. I kept putting it off and ultimately forgot about it. He hit me up again on Saturday, "hey man, look, we're about to remodel and I have about 7-8 boxes of cards I'm either going to throw out or give to you to donate to your various causes." I'm thinking 7-8 of the smallish 600 count boxes.

I get to his place and it is 7 1200-3200 count boxes. Like heavy enough that carrying two at a time was a struggle, three was impossible. He said that his cousin/relative/someone went through them 25 years ago but they're otherwise untouched. I said I'd go through to see if there were any Frank Thomas cards or any other players I know that friends PC. After that, I'd probably donate them (to the Methodist children's home since this guy is a Methodist minister and I'm going to low key donate them under his name).

Box 1 I found 5 Eckersly base (I have a friend that collects him), 4 Sosa, 4 Randy Johnsons, and 5 of Darryl Hamilton from Nicholls State. I set those aside for my friend and I to divide. I did find two copies of Pat Mahommes Sr baseball cards so that was cool. Everything else was a LOT of early 90s base and a handful of 83 Topps of no one I recognized. Whoever gave him these boxes really did pick through them 25 years ago. 6 boxes to go. I have an out door storage unit across the street, I might have to stash them in there box by box because my apartment is really starting to border on a Hoarders episode (I've also agreed to ebay cosign some complete in box video games for another friend and that's three large boxes in my living room PLUS two musician pedal boards I have agreed to try and move through my connections).

 

[snuffbox]

Won an Ebay auction last night for a 1955 Bowman Cal Hubbard, PSA 6. He's the only member of both the football and baseball halls of fame. He was a member of Curly Lambeau's Packers. Made Cooperstown as a longtime umpire and official. I think it's his only nationally-produced card. I'm not aware of any local oddball stuff either (not counting Swell, HOF plaques, etc).

 

[HarleyQuinn]

My latest mail day pick ups Spent about $46 or so for 10 cards from DRT Trading at Beckett including a 25/25 2020 Holo Silver NT of Marquise Brown. The McCaffrey is /199 and the Thomas is /299 IIRC. The Performers CM is /25 while the Playoff CM is /74. Only the Bobby Orr is un-numbered but that's a '93-'94 Retro SP design.

 

[Smues]

I mostly finished collecting 2022 Topps Heritage Baseball a month or two ago, but because TOPPS is AIDS and made ONE HUNDRED FUCKING BASE CARDS short prints, at one short print in every three packs (24 packs in a hobby box, eat my ass TOPPS), whenever I go to the card shop I'll grab a couple of packs of it in hopes of getting a short print or two I don't have yet. I did that two weekends ago when I went to get a couple boxes of 2021 Contenders baseball (assholes restocked it out of nowhere. Damnit I'll trying to stop!). Got home and opened my packs, was surprised enough to see an autograph redemption card in one of the packs, and then I saw who it was for.



I only buy cards to grow my personal collection, and to placate my gambling addiction, but this is one time I kind of wish I sold cards. The market for Wander is insane and I assume almost has to crash at some point, but just based on the last 3 months of eBay sales for this specific auto I could probably get 900-1,000 for it. Insanity.

And also insane, hours later that evening I get around to opening my Contenders Baseball boxes. Third pack:



WTF

Only on card auto I got in that box, and only 3rd or 4th optic auto I've pulled from the product. And then just to make that day more bizarre, the last pack in the box had a 150 Panini Points card in lieu of auto (somehow its always the last fucking pack I open, even when I shuffle the packs up), which normally would annoy and/or anger me, but because Wander I just chuckled...and then finishing going through the pack I find the case hit Gold Rush insert, which I'd gotten zero of previously.



ALL THE WTFS

 

[HarleyQuinn]

HGA getting sued, pretty serious allegations!

 

[SFH]

If true, hope Tyler burns.