Couldn’t agree more with your observation regarding recent PSA grades for vintage. Over the course of 2024, I have purchased a handful of recently graded PSA 5s and 6s that I have cracked out of their holders and placed in one-touches. They are near perfect cards and I don’t have to have the grades staring back at me.
Thank you for the time and effort that you put into these videos Graig!! Great analysis!! How does a person find these deals? I truly appreciate everything you do for the card hobby!!
Hi Graig. I enjoyed watching this months EBAY sales. It just shows that you can get some awesome deals on vintage cards. Thanks for all that you do for this hobby.
Graig, you continue to bring solid information to the community. It’s amazing what you see when you shine a light on the grading companies. And you are using real numbers from finished sales
Hey Graig! I can’t thank you enough for all you do for the midlife nation community! You’re such a good person and a good human being and I appreciate you so much, we appreciate you so much. You are about to hit an incredible milestone, 6000 followers. I’m telling all my friends to subscribe! Take care and God bless you and thanks again for all that you do!
Great vid ! The guidelines that both PSA and SGC for that matter have made searching for graded cards more enjoyable for me. I will purposely search for cards with the word psa or sgc followed (poor). It’s amazing the quality of cards that can be found without breaking the bank.
Hey there Graig your great buys segment is one of my favorite show's you do, I really appreciate all the time and research you put into this topic. Just yesterday I purchased a 1966 Topps Joe Morgan All-Star Rookie card in a SGC 5.5 with nice eye appeal for $29.99 in a best offer. I had been targeting a SGC 6 for over 6 months now in the $60 dollar range, I never found the right one. I sacrificed a 1/2 grade but paid 1/2 of what 6's are going for, for my really nice copy. I love November and December deals it has become my favorite time of year to buy cards.
Hi greg i enjoy your vidoes.this month my favorite cards is the buster posey Retirement cermony card from 2022 and watched i was An attendance for.and also i got the will clark 2022 Retired his jersy number and i also attendance for that too thought it was cool to find cards to games i want too.i will post them when they Arrive her
Great examples comparing the new and old PSA slabs. It is obvious to anyone that they grade harder today. One other comment I wanted to make is that I sold a very similar Deacon Jones card six months ago for $99.99 with $5 shipping. Mine had better corners and slightly worse centering, but now the card goes for $44? Crazy deals out there.
That 1959 Fleer Ted Williams selling that cheap in an SGC 8 was mind blowing. Hell, I wish I had seen that one for sale, because I would have bought it.
Graig, great points you make here!! I have noticed the same thing. I think there are a couple of factors for this. One, is that during Covid PSA was hiring people like crazy! They had ads all the time looking for people. My guess is most where brought in with no card knowledge. Second, if one grades both vintage and modern, they cannot compare in quality. Thus you really need to look at them in a different light. Just my humble opinion!
I think that's a lot of it. No question. Also, because PSA grew faster than SGC, it was easier for SGC to keep their standards because they were smaller. I think that's a TON of it. The problem is...once the grading is "different"....then, do the grades even matter at all anymore?
I haven’t bought anything off eBay, but I’ve been looking at the prices in the I’m blown away with that being said you are right these graded are getting tough and I guess we’re the middle guys. Thank you for the video.❤️
My last, and I mean very last PSA submission included some very nice 68s, including that same Aaron and a Bench RC. I was expecting a 6 and hoping for a 7, but that Aaron got a 4. It’s a beauty. The Bench was a long shot to get a 7, but it too received a 4, a death blow to that important RC.
In a future episode, you should focus on how they’re now grading T206 and Goudey. Pertains to both PSA and SGC. It’s easily a 2.5 point difference from just 5 years ago. The PSA / SGC merger should never have been approved. It’s as corrupt a monopoly as there is.
Where am I when all these hot deals come up? There are some really good deals in what you showed. Thanks for doing the research and sharing with us, Graig.
My biggest problem in the hobby continues to be PSA…period! They are now dominant in the market more than ever…and that IS a problem. Their monopoly in terms of sheer volume has increased to the point that most of us here in the middle class of vintage card collectors are truly being left out in terms of quality and consistency of grading. The graders apparently are just not that good…or AI technology is literally taking over the final graded product. Someone needs to reach out to PSA and have them recognize what they are doing to endanger…instead of enhancing…the graded product. Thanks again Graig for speaking up!
I’ve been studying this quite a bit recently and a few thoughts keep running through my mind. 1. Many of these newly graded 50’s and 60’s cards in the 3 to 5 range have very white borders. Whiter than the old slab 6’s and 7’s Makes me think that soaking and cleaning is widespread. 2. Where have these raw cards been hiding for so long? 3. Why sellers are not using SGC more. My hunch is that many of these 3’s and 4’s you showed would have graded at least one, maybe two grades higher at SGC.
As much as the low prices, I’m amazed at how harsh PSA grading is, certainly they have been grading tougher. File that in the buy the card and not the grade file!
@ I agree, buyer beware! Frustrating that it can’t be more consistent. But like you say, you can get some nice cards at reduced prices because of the low grade.
Thanks Graig! This is why I love mid to low range grades. But, I’m a little bit of a hypocrite because when I (used to) send in grades for grading, I would get so irritated if I received a mid to low grade.
@ I had planned on only graded for my PC, but have now trimmed it to graded for my top tier wants (this is what’s important to me and not necessarily what is most expensive) and then raw for the others.
@ It’s one of the best cards out there! I don’t know if you’ve seen it, but Orlando has that card autographed with the auto inside of the bat. It’s perfect.
there's a Pele Alifabolaget rookie up now on Fanatics weekly auction, it's a PSA 1 but it looks almost as nice as the 2 you mentioned. super tempted to go for it. i believe a PSA 9 of that card was the first million dollar soccer card sale a couple years ago. love the videos Graig, do more vintage soccer!
Morning Graig. I agree that right now is a great opportunity to pick up vintage cards. So many deals on baseballs glory years. Sadly, I will be out of the hobby for the next 8 years 😥. No more cards for awhile. My wife and I are doubling down on tackling debt so she can retire early. In the mean time, I’m going to stash my cards away out of sight so as not to get that itch to buy one more card that I have to have. Card collecting is very fun yet addictive. These cards tell a story of a past long gone. Anyhow, happy collecting. I wish the best.
Greg, love your content. I need to go to eBay search school because I have been spending a lot of time working on a Clemente run in the low-mid grade SGCs and somehow I’ve been missing these. Any advise? Also I agree that eBay is the most widely used place to buy and sell these cards but can you recommend some other good sources? Thanks Greg. Please keep the videos coming.
Last thing, one specific thing you do better than others is educate us. You don’t show us all the amazing cards you have which often can make a person feel bad about their collection. You help make us better.
It's probably wax rather than pancake syrup. 🤣 But you're right. I'm seeing brutal grading on some vintage cards with cert numbers starting with 9. Combine that with the time of year and the recently typical train-wreck auctions on low- to mid-grade vintage cards and you get your mind-blowing prices. High-end and elite cards still do OK in eBay auctions, but otherwise you're crazy to put your 1962 McCovey PSA 4 into an eBay auction. Your heart will be broken. Buy auctions, sell fixed-price. And as Graig said, buy recently-slabbed mid-grades! PSA 4 is the old PSA 6 or 7.
Here's my take on the grading. It costs alot more nowadays to grade your cards compared to the $5-6 cards of yesterday. Then you're getting alot worse and seriously, more erratic grading, giving you less money back due to their grades that (in their opinion) they give your card. Go to sell those same cards, and most of the buyers are looking at that number that PSA gave your card, and everyone wants it cheaper than your listed price. I've refused many sales due to this because I'll just keep it in my collection rather than just giving my card away. It's certainly a buyers market, and I'm not willing to take that kind of a loss. Heck, I'll just keep it in my collection. Right now, I'm spending more of my own money buying cards than trying to offset my costs, selling some of my less favorable cards. It's just not the appropriate time to sell. If you can afford to.... buy, buy, buy. Eventually, things will self-correct. Just not yet.
I would be careful buying cards with grades 2/3/4 on eBay without holding them in hand. I have graded vintage a few times with PSA the past year and they are grading harder, but cards that get these grades have surface wrinkles and creasing you can't see from the image. You might be real disappointed when you get the card in hand and there is a surface wrinkle across the face that you can't unsee. It would also be unfair to send it back to the seller, since the card was graded properly. I have sold people cards graded a 3/4 like this and they complain when there is a wrinkle on it. I now have to list issues with graded cards because of this, which is silly because the card was graded correctly. The other thing you need to be careful of with new PSA labels, is the defects are being masked by people using Kurt's Card Care techniques. The card still has creasing and wrinkles, but these "card restoration experts" are pressing the cards and cleaning them to make them appear better, but the damage is still there. As someone who grades, I avoid really nice looking 2/3's for a reason.
Personal examples that reinforce Graig's point: 1959 Topps Whitey Ford PSA 3 (looks like an old 6) for $26 ... 1972 Topps Seaver In Action PSA 5 (looks like 6) for $16 ... 1973 Topps Yaz PSA 5 (looks like 7) for $16 ... 1975 Topps Yount Rookie PSA 4 (looks like 6) for $20 ... 1959 Topps Mays / Ashburn PSA 4 (looks like 6) for $20. All were recently graded. These prices do not include shipping and tax.
PSA has gone cuckoo for Cocoa puffs. I don’t know if or how they will never adjust back to reality, but in the meantime, great deals can be had! Awesome video G
As I write this there were so many absolutely amazingly low prices for amazing cards it is startling. PSA has gone off the deep end. I have a dealer friend that only deals with PSA cards.. I regularly buy PSA cards that were graded recently from him and send them into SGC and ALWAYS get a higher grade. I'm convinced that PSA is being graded by a robot. SGC grades cards by eye appeal.
What a difference. I know it may be best to re-holder your old slabs to sell, but sure costly and obviously what you are showing my cards would be in new over graded slabs. A couple years ago I broke out my Red Heart Mantle in a SCD 7 holder sent to PSA which gave it a 3. The change in grading shows the number is now bull and should be ignored.
Graig, i have a 1968 Topps Bench rookie PSA 2 that i bought last year. It has beautiful eye appeal as it looks like a PSA 5 or 6. I think what may happen is older PSA slabs (with the exception of iconic cards) will continue to lose demand on the market. I could be wrong but i wonder if sellers crack those old slabs and get it regraded knowing it will get a lower grade. It may come to a point where selling a lower graded new slab has more demand than a higher graded old slabs. It will be interesting to see how this plays out
It's so strange, to me not just the grading has potentially changed from the ''old'' slabs, but also the premium of these 'newer' PSA slabs. What is stopping PSA from changing their slab/label yet again?
I will keep it short. Grades can suck it !!! I collect baseball cards and I have my own 👀 eye balls that are highly trained and been looking at cards 30 years longer than most graders out there. I also have a 🧠 brain that works most of the time. Ok that wasnt that short. 🤙🤙
These grades are ludicrous. Now we have to ask what it would take for those 3s and 4s to get a 7 or 8. There has to be incremental grades to show the different levels of grades. If something that looks amazing is a 3, it is going to really mess up the system. Also, people are going to stop grading their raw cards. They will get more money for a great card if it isn’t graded. You are correct though, it really allows us to pay value prices for amazing cards. I’m not sure how grading apps like VCP and Card Ladder will continue with their current business model. On paper comps will mean absolutely nothing if the grades are not uniform.
That's the thing...with the same grades being so "different".....what does that do to comps? That 61 Koufax vs the 61 Drysdale.....those cards aren't even close, but the grade is the same. So, in the database, it shows as the same "value"....
A good question. Honestly, I don't know if I trust some of the super high-end vintage grades. Whether it's because the graders are College kids, who don't have the expertise of understanding condition. Or the usage of Kurt's Card Care, and other devious methods, which could possibly trick the graders, and they just don't catch it. Hard to say, for sure.
@@ACD1994 they are grading vintage cards using the same algorithm they use for shiny modern cards. They seem to be doing some sort of pop control on those to keep the 10’s to a minimum. We all knew the vintage was graded on a curve, but they have now gotten rid of the curve
@@SouthernCollector14 Things that may seem to appear a certain way is, difficult to prove. But, let's say PSA has changed their grading standards. Maybe they were grading too easily a few years ago or so? I've been in the TH-cam for almost 5 years. This sentiment of PSA being the most strict and rigid grading company, I've noticed only in the past year or year and a half. I'm far from a PSA loyalist or 'fanboy, but I would say there is, some value in having a 3rd party opinion, which is unbiased. If we graded our own cards...of course, we wouldn't give them all 3's and 4's. 🤷♂
this is a PSA problem, though, not an SGC problem. they aren't grading harder, they are grading incomprehensibly. PSA should be embarrassed and should hire somebody to spot these cards on the internet and make it right to the people who submitted them. It'd have to be really unique set of circumstances for me to consider sending a card to grade at PSA. There's no way I'd run the risk of losing hundreds of dollars in value on a card because they cannot hire enough quality staff and enough staff (in general) to turnaround cards in a reasonable time frame. Chris Sewall even made a video sharing the results of one of his submissions in which he had pack fresh cards that got 5s.
Personally I don’t go near any vintage cards but these players were considered some of the best of their time. Does this mean a player like Mookie betts, Freddie Freeman type will be forgotten?
@@MidLifeCards Disagree Freeman will be forgotten. He had a iconic moment in the World Series, in similar fashion to Kirk Gibson. We'll be seeing this highlight talked about in 20 years....the challenge is however, what you guys talked about in the live-stream last night. There's a lot of modern cards of just one player. Which Freeman rookie cards are, the ones which are desirable.
Nice job bringing attention to this absurd grading debacle. You could’ve shown an infinite number of even more egregious examples. And while you’re looking at it as a “buying opportunity”, sellers are taking it up the A$$.
So I've said a few times that I think the Hobby should go away from grades, but keep the Authentication part. However, since this seems unlikely, and grading is more likely than not to be a big part of the hobby. AI grading could be a game changer. I think then, hopefully we would have a better idea of why the ''4's'' we think look like ''7.'s. Might actually be 4's. This also occurs when the drinking stops. But I don't drink. However, I've officially been inducted to the 2025 TH-cam Hall of Fame Commenter Class. That causes for a toast. Grape juice? Orange Juice? Maybe, water. If it beats the inflation prices.
I don't disagree. I think "authentic" provides the most important information. But, because of ebay and buying cards online...."more information" is needed to make a large purchase from a picture. Also, photos can be manipulated. When I see a 6 that looks like an 8....I know it doesn't have a crease. That's information that simply "authentic" doesn't fix.
I doubt the volume of beautiful cards from the 50's and early 60's that are available today match the volume that was produced back in the 50's, heck the population in the country wasn't nearly that high as today. People didn't protect them. To many are far to nice and the graders know it. Fakes from Asia ? Question for one of your Q & A shows. How do the graders know fakes if produced on the same presses. Were the presses ever destroyed or simply shipped overseas ?
You’re seeing all the shockingly low grades on great cards because psa and SGC intentionally suppress grades to prop up values and of existing high grade cards.
Anecdotally, it is BY far the worst with PSA. SGC might be mildly stricter, but I think they continue to be much more aligned to how they've always graded.
DEFINITELY SEEING THE SAME BS with SGC. Especially since the PSA merger. The grades are now a full 2 points lower than just 5 years ago. I’ve been cracking them out and putting in one-touch holders. So done with them!
Stop using PSA! I have said this before if PSA cards bring higher prices but you’re getting two grades lower than what is the point of using them? People are like lemmings.
I'm not saying PSA isn't grading tougher these days but they should have been grading this tough all along. They evolved once they figured out what they were doing and how they should be doing it. I don't want to spend the time double checking all your cards but the '61 Drysdale PSA 3 for eg. You can't simply eyeball it from a distance, you need to compare it directly to the same card in high grade side by side. Then you'd have a video that did the comparison justice. If you do you will notice just how much better the color is on a higher grade card. You will notice more easily that the PSA 3 is slightly off center. You will also see from the back of the card that the corners on the PSA 3 are all weak. I'm not suggesting I don't understand that the 3 looks pretty good, especially at the casual glance, but saying that it doesn't merit the 3 that it got is the wrong approach. (or blaming old grading standards v. new grading standards)
I would not call those corners weak. Two of them appear to not be perfectly sharp but that alone would put it in what? a 6 range? the centering is good enough for a 6. and I do see the diff in color that you mentioned... on PSA's cert lookup, the colors run hot on the card in question making the blue on his cap off color and the green grass and trees in the background also off color. for whatever it's worth, on the pic here which I assume Graig got from the listing, look closer to normal. I can't see how this card is anything worse than a 5 and the Koufax Graig shared.. yes, that's what a 3 looks like to me
I have to ask, I thought this upcoming year, would be a year that this 70 year old would get cards graded for the first time in my life….i am thinking no after this
Grading isn't worthless in my opinion. It does provide some information. But, using our eyes in conjunction with the grade, provides the information to make the best decisions in my opinion.
These sales are absolutely amazing. All the buyers should be wearing ski-masks today. Talk about eye appeal.... The Don Drysdale basically was free. Come on...
🎉 Can you make a video with the exact same cards in the same grades just like this video say an old Mickey mantle 3/4 compared to a new slab mantle same card in a 3/4 thanks!!!
Couldn’t agree more with your observation regarding recent PSA grades for vintage. Over the course of 2024, I have purchased a handful of recently graded PSA 5s and 6s that I have cracked out of their holders and placed in one-touches. They are near perfect cards and I don’t have to have the grades staring back at me.
It's wild how tough they're grading.
Perhaps they are incentivizing us to send vintage cards to SGC
Thank you for the time and effort that you put into these videos Graig!! Great analysis!! How does a person find these deals? I truly appreciate everything you do for the card hobby!!
Great video! My favorite videos you show are the videos that help us get the most out of our buck!
Hi Graig. I enjoyed watching this months EBAY sales. It just shows that you can get some awesome deals on vintage cards. Thanks for all that you do for this hobby.
Graig, you continue to bring solid information to the community. It’s amazing what you see when you shine a light on the grading companies. And you are using real numbers from finished sales
I appreciate that!
Hey Graig! I can’t thank you enough for all you do for the midlife nation community! You’re such a good person and a good human being and I appreciate you so much, we appreciate you so much. You are about to hit an incredible milestone, 6000 followers. I’m telling all my friends to subscribe! Take care and God bless you and thanks again for all that you do!
Wow. Thanks Kevin. This comment really means a lot to me. Truly, this made my day.
Great vid ! The guidelines that both PSA and SGC for that matter have made searching for graded cards more enjoyable for me. I will purposely search for cards with the word psa or sgc followed (poor). It’s amazing the quality of cards that can be found without breaking the bank.
Great idea.
Love this show. Over time, this is one of the few shows on utube I always listen to and enjoy
That's super nice of you to say. I really appreciate it.
Hey there Graig your great buys segment is one of my favorite show's you do, I really appreciate all the time and research you put into this topic. Just yesterday I purchased a 1966 Topps Joe Morgan All-Star Rookie card in a SGC 5.5 with nice eye appeal for $29.99 in a best offer. I had been targeting a SGC 6 for over 6 months now in the $60 dollar range, I never found the right one. I sacrificed a 1/2 grade but paid 1/2 of what 6's are going for, for my really nice copy. I love November and December deals it has become my favorite time of year to buy cards.
Awesome pickup!! I agree. It seems like November and December present some really good deals.
Hi greg i enjoy your vidoes.this month my favorite cards is the buster posey Retirement cermony card from 2022 and watched i was An attendance for.and also i got the will clark 2022 Retired his jersy number and i also attendance for that too thought it was cool to find cards to games i want too.i will post them when they Arrive her
An eye-opening video, Graig! Great examples here of why many of us favor eye appeal over assigned grade. Loved this!
I love YOU!! So, that's cool.
Great examples comparing the new and old PSA slabs. It is obvious to anyone that they grade harder today. One other comment I wanted to make is that I sold a very similar Deacon Jones card six months ago for $99.99 with $5 shipping. Mine had better corners and slightly worse centering, but now the card goes for $44? Crazy deals out there.
That 1959 Fleer Ted Williams selling that cheap in an SGC 8 was mind blowing. Hell, I wish I had seen that one for sale, because I would have bought it.
Graig, great points you make here!! I have noticed the same thing. I think there are a couple of factors for this. One, is that during Covid PSA was hiring people like crazy! They had ads all the time looking for people. My guess is most where brought in with no card knowledge. Second, if one grades both vintage and modern, they cannot compare in quality. Thus you really need to look at them in a different light. Just my humble opinion!
I think that's a lot of it. No question. Also, because PSA grew faster than SGC, it was easier for SGC to keep their standards because they were smaller. I think that's a TON of it. The problem is...once the grading is "different"....then, do the grades even matter at all anymore?
Wow Graig, I wish I saw some of those cards. Amazing prices.
Yeah, I wish you could have seen them too.
I haven’t bought anything off eBay, but I’ve been looking at the prices in the I’m blown away with that being said you are right these graded are getting tough and I guess we’re the middle guys. Thank you for the video.❤️
Excellent and informative video. Cards in old PSA holders in a particular grade are generally inferior to cards in newer holders in the same grade.
My last, and I mean very last PSA submission included some very nice 68s, including that same Aaron and a Bench RC. I was expecting a 6 and hoping for a 7, but that Aaron got a 4. It’s a beauty. The Bench was a long shot to get a 7, but it too received a 4, a death blow to that important RC.
CRAZY TIMES!!
In a future episode, you should focus on how they’re now grading T206 and Goudey. Pertains to both PSA and SGC. It’s easily a 2.5 point difference from just 5 years ago. The PSA / SGC merger should never have been approved. It’s as corrupt a monopoly as there is.
Great video Graig! Can’t argue they are grading tougher!
It’s tough to argue with the evidence!
Where am I when all these hot deals come up? There are some really good deals in what you showed. Thanks for doing the research and sharing with us, Graig.
Glad you enjoyed it. There are always great deals that slip through the cracks.
My biggest problem in the hobby continues to be PSA…period! They are now dominant in the market more than ever…and that IS a problem. Their monopoly in terms of sheer volume has increased to the point that most of us here in the middle class of vintage card collectors are truly being left out in terms of quality and consistency of grading. The graders apparently are just not that good…or AI technology is literally taking over the final graded product. Someone needs to reach out to PSA and have them recognize what they are doing to endanger…instead of enhancing…the graded product. Thanks again Graig for speaking up!
Great analysis, great deals. Thanks for sharing
I appreciate your comments.
I’ve been studying this quite a bit recently and a few thoughts keep running through my mind.
1. Many of these newly graded 50’s and 60’s cards in the 3 to 5 range have very white borders. Whiter than the old slab 6’s and 7’s Makes me think that soaking and cleaning is widespread.
2. Where have these raw cards been hiding for so long?
3. Why sellers are not using SGC more. My hunch is that many of these 3’s and 4’s you showed would have graded at least one, maybe two grades higher at SGC.
As much as the low prices, I’m amazed at how harsh PSA grading is, certainly they have been grading tougher. File that in the buy the card and not the grade file!
It seems like it's a completely different grading scale at this point.
@ I agree, buyer beware! Frustrating that it can’t be more consistent. But like you say, you can get some nice cards at reduced prices because of the low grade.
Thanks Graig! This is why I love mid to low range grades. But, I’m a little bit of a hypocrite because when I (used to) send in grades for grading, I would get so irritated if I received a mid to low grade.
or not grade at all
@ I had planned on only graded for my PC, but have now trimmed it to graded for my top tier wants (this is what’s important to me and not necessarily what is most expensive) and then raw for the others.
I think that 53B Minoso had a print line through the center, similar to the flaw on my Spahn from that set.
Still a decent looking card.
@ It’s one of the best cards out there! I don’t know if you’ve seen it, but Orlando has that card autographed with the auto inside of the bat. It’s perfect.
there's a Pele Alifabolaget rookie up now on Fanatics weekly auction, it's a PSA 1 but it looks almost as nice as the 2 you mentioned. super tempted to go for it. i believe a PSA 9 of that card was the first million dollar soccer card sale a couple years ago. love the videos Graig, do more vintage soccer!
That's a HUGE card. Way out of my price range, unfortunately.
With all that said the 8's, 9's 10's graded earlier are still mostly lookin pretty spectaticular tho
Morning Graig. I agree that right now is a great opportunity to pick up vintage cards. So many deals on baseballs glory years. Sadly, I will be out of the hobby for the next 8 years 😥. No more cards for awhile. My wife and I are doubling down on tackling debt so she can retire early. In the mean time, I’m going to stash my cards away out of sight so as not to get that itch to buy one more card that I have to have. Card collecting is very fun yet addictive. These cards tell a story of a past long gone. Anyhow, happy collecting. I wish the best.
That is a great decision and will be worth it. In 8 years you'll have more money to buy!!
Greg, love your content.
I need to go to eBay search school because I have been spending a lot of time working on a Clemente run in the low-mid grade SGCs and somehow I’ve been missing these. Any advise? Also I agree that eBay is the most widely used place to buy and sell these cards but can you recommend some other good sources? Thanks Greg. Please keep the videos coming.
I can cover this in an upcoming Q and A video.
Great! Looking forward to it. Thanks!
@@MidLifeCardsgreat idea
Last thing, one specific thing you do better than others is educate us. You don’t show us all the amazing cards you have which often can make a person feel bad about their collection. You help make us better.
It's probably wax rather than pancake syrup. 🤣 But you're right. I'm seeing brutal grading on some vintage cards with cert numbers starting with 9. Combine that with the time of year and the recently typical train-wreck auctions on low- to mid-grade vintage cards and you get your mind-blowing prices. High-end and elite cards still do OK in eBay auctions, but otherwise you're crazy to put your 1962 McCovey PSA 4 into an eBay auction. Your heart will be broken. Buy auctions, sell fixed-price. And as Graig said, buy recently-slabbed mid-grades! PSA 4 is the old PSA 6 or 7.
I stand by it. It has to be syrup. LOL.
Amazing info, very thought provoking. I will take that Drysdale for $12!
I agree. That Drysdale for $12 was crazy.
Here's my take on the grading. It costs alot more nowadays to grade your cards compared to the $5-6 cards of yesterday. Then you're getting alot worse and seriously, more erratic grading, giving you less money back due to their grades that (in their opinion) they give your card. Go to sell those same cards, and most of the buyers are looking at that number that PSA gave your card, and everyone wants it cheaper than your listed price.
I've refused many sales due to this because I'll just keep it in my collection rather than just giving my card away. It's certainly a buyers market, and I'm not willing to take that kind of a loss. Heck, I'll just keep it in my collection.
Right now, I'm spending more of my own money buying cards than trying to offset my costs, selling some of my less favorable cards.
It's just not the appropriate time to sell. If you can afford to.... buy, buy, buy. Eventually, things will self-correct. Just not yet.
I would be careful buying cards with grades 2/3/4 on eBay without holding them in hand. I have graded vintage a few times with PSA the past year and they are grading harder, but cards that get these grades have surface wrinkles and creasing you can't see from the image. You might be real disappointed when you get the card in hand and there is a surface wrinkle across the face that you can't unsee. It would also be unfair to send it back to the seller, since the card was graded properly. I have sold people cards graded a 3/4 like this and they complain when there is a wrinkle on it. I now have to list issues with graded cards because of this, which is silly because the card was graded correctly. The other thing you need to be careful of with new PSA labels, is the defects are being masked by people using Kurt's Card Care techniques. The card still has creasing and wrinkles, but these "card restoration experts" are pressing the cards and cleaning them to make them appear better, but the damage is still there. As someone who grades, I avoid really nice looking 2/3's for a reason.
Personal examples that reinforce Graig's point: 1959 Topps Whitey Ford PSA 3 (looks like an old 6) for $26 ... 1972 Topps Seaver In Action PSA 5 (looks like 6) for $16 ... 1973 Topps Yaz PSA 5 (looks like 7) for $16 ... 1975 Topps Yount Rookie PSA 4 (looks like 6) for $20 ... 1959 Topps Mays / Ashburn PSA 4 (looks like 6) for $20. All were recently graded. These prices do not include shipping and tax.
PSA has gone cuckoo for Cocoa puffs. I don’t know if or how they will never adjust back to reality, but in the meantime, great deals can be had! Awesome video G
Thanks Bud. If they wanna call my 7 a 4. Fine. I'll happily pay 4 prices for it.
As I write this there were so many absolutely amazingly low prices for amazing cards it is startling. PSA has gone off the deep end. I have a dealer friend that only deals with PSA cards.. I regularly buy PSA cards that were graded recently from him and send them into SGC and ALWAYS get a higher grade. I'm convinced that PSA is being graded by a robot. SGC grades cards by eye appeal.
If so, the robots are broken. 🤣
What a difference. I know it may be best to re-holder your old slabs to sell, but sure costly and obviously what you are showing my cards would be in new over graded slabs. A couple years ago I broke out my Red Heart Mantle in a SCD 7 holder sent to PSA which gave it a 3. The change in grading shows the number is now bull and should be ignored.
EXACTLY!!
The flip side of this madness is how easily they overgrade ultra-modern. So many new cards in PSA 10 are way off centered or dinged corners. Crazy.
Graig, i have a 1968 Topps Bench rookie PSA 2 that i bought last year. It has beautiful eye appeal as it looks like a PSA 5 or 6.
I think what may happen is older PSA slabs (with the exception of iconic cards) will continue to lose demand on the market. I could be wrong but i wonder if sellers crack those old slabs and get it regraded knowing it will get a lower grade. It may come to a point where selling a lower graded new slab has more demand than a higher graded old slabs. It will be interesting to see how this plays out
It's so strange, to me not just the grading has potentially changed from the ''old'' slabs, but also the premium of these 'newer' PSA slabs. What is stopping PSA from changing their slab/label yet again?
I love me some 3's, 4's and 5's!
I think with people cracking and resending cards for grading, PSA is doubling their profits.
And slowing down return times.
I will keep it short. Grades can suck it !!! I collect baseball cards and I have my own 👀 eye balls that are highly trained and been looking at cards 30 years longer than most graders out there. I also have a 🧠 brain that works most of the time. Ok that wasnt that short. 🤙🤙
LOLOLOLOL
Amen brother!
These grades are ludicrous. Now we have to ask what it would take for those 3s and 4s to get a 7 or 8. There has to be incremental grades to show the different levels of grades. If something that looks amazing is a 3, it is going to really mess up the system. Also, people are going to stop grading their raw cards. They will get more money for a great card if it isn’t graded. You are correct though, it really allows us to pay value prices for amazing cards. I’m not sure how grading apps like VCP and Card Ladder will continue with their current business model. On paper comps will mean absolutely nothing if the grades are not uniform.
That's the thing...with the same grades being so "different".....what does that do to comps? That 61 Koufax vs the 61 Drysdale.....those cards aren't even close, but the grade is the same. So, in the database, it shows as the same "value"....
A good question. Honestly, I don't know if I trust some of the super high-end vintage grades. Whether it's because the graders are College kids, who don't have the expertise of understanding condition. Or the usage of Kurt's Card Care, and other devious methods, which could possibly trick the graders, and they just don't catch it. Hard to say, for sure.
@@ACD1994 they are grading vintage cards using the same algorithm they use for shiny modern cards. They seem to be doing some sort of pop control on those to keep the 10’s to a minimum. We all knew the vintage was graded on a curve, but they have now gotten rid of the curve
@@SouthernCollector14 Things that may seem to appear a certain way is, difficult to prove. But, let's say PSA has changed their grading standards. Maybe they were grading too easily a few years ago or so? I've been in the TH-cam for almost 5 years. This sentiment of PSA being the most strict and rigid grading company, I've noticed only in the past year or year and a half. I'm far from a PSA loyalist or 'fanboy, but I would say there is, some value in having a 3rd party opinion, which is unbiased. If we graded our own cards...of course, we wouldn't give them all 3's and 4's. 🤷♂
This must take so long! Do you use a filter tool or the one on eBay? Great video again.
I have a few search terms that I use and a couple of filters. Takes time, but I think it's valuable and important and worth it.
HA! I bought the Ken Boyer rookie card in this video!
Nice cards. Eye appeal.
Eye appeal is king.
So why send cards to PSA? If they are grading that poorly. Why would I want to send my cards into them?
this is a PSA problem, though, not an SGC problem. they aren't grading harder, they are grading incomprehensibly. PSA should be embarrassed and should hire somebody to spot these cards on the internet and make it right to the people who submitted them. It'd have to be really unique set of circumstances for me to consider sending a card to grade at PSA. There's no way I'd run the risk of losing hundreds of dollars in value on a card because they cannot hire enough quality staff and enough staff (in general) to turnaround cards in a reasonable time frame. Chris Sewall even made a video sharing the results of one of his submissions in which he had pack fresh cards that got 5s.
Personally I don’t go near any vintage cards but these players were considered some of the best of their time. Does this mean a player like
Mookie betts, Freddie Freeman type will be forgotten?
Betts won't be. Freeman might.
@@MidLifeCards Disagree Freeman will be forgotten. He had a iconic moment in the World Series, in similar fashion to Kirk Gibson. We'll be seeing this highlight talked about in 20 years....the challenge is however, what you guys talked about in the live-stream last night. There's a lot of modern cards of just one player. Which Freeman rookie cards are, the ones which are desirable.
@ fair point. He probably won’t be forgotten, but his card values may not be like Mookie’s.
@@MidLifeCards Yeah this could be true
Nice job bringing attention to this absurd grading debacle. You could’ve shown an infinite number of even more egregious examples. And while you’re looking at it as a “buying opportunity”, sellers are taking it up the A$$.
I don’t think the grading standards have necessarily changed, it’s how those standards are implemented
Well said.
They’ve changed by at least 2 full points.
So I've said a few times that I think the Hobby should go away from grades, but keep the Authentication part. However, since this seems unlikely, and grading is more likely than not to be a big part of the hobby. AI grading could be a game changer. I think then, hopefully we would have a better idea of why the ''4's'' we think look like ''7.'s. Might actually be 4's. This also occurs when the drinking stops. But I don't drink. However, I've officially been inducted to the 2025 TH-cam Hall of Fame Commenter Class. That causes for a toast. Grape juice? Orange Juice? Maybe, water. If it beats the inflation prices.
I don't disagree. I think "authentic" provides the most important information. But, because of ebay and buying cards online...."more information" is needed to make a large purchase from a picture. Also, photos can be manipulated. When I see a 6 that looks like an 8....I know it doesn't have a crease. That's information that simply "authentic" doesn't fix.
@@MidLifeCards Yeah. The important part is I am going to be in TH-cam Hall Of Fame. It's about damn time!
I doubt the volume of beautiful cards from the 50's and early 60's that are available today match the volume that was produced back in the 50's, heck the population in the country wasn't nearly that high as today. People didn't protect them. To many are far to nice and the graders know it. Fakes from Asia ? Question for one of your Q & A shows. How do the graders know fakes if produced on the same presses. Were the presses ever destroyed or simply shipped overseas ?
You know....I think this is a good question, but I'm not sure I know the answer to it. I wish I could be more helpful.
PSA isn't very transparent with their grading process. Which I feel adds to the confusion or frustrations of the collectors.
You’re seeing all the shockingly low grades on great cards because psa and SGC intentionally suppress grades to prop up values and of existing high grade cards.
Thanks, as always, for the insightful information. Do you think the stricter grading is exclusive to psa or are you seeing the same pattern with sgc?
Anecdotally, it is BY far the worst with PSA. SGC might be mildly stricter, but I think they continue to be much more aligned to how they've always graded.
DEFINITELY SEEING THE SAME BS with SGC. Especially since the PSA merger. The grades are now a full 2 points lower than just 5 years ago. I’ve been cracking them out and putting in one-touch holders. So done with them!
Simple, pop control.
They're protecting populations of 4s and 5s?
@ by grading cards that were or would be 6-8 now at 4 & 5 the higher grades stay low pop and have increased (perceived) values.
or cards are just going down in value. 40$ for deacon jones or bob feller?
Stop using PSA! I have said this before if PSA cards bring higher prices but you’re getting two grades lower than what is the point of using them? People are like lemmings.
I'm not saying PSA isn't grading tougher these days but they should have been grading this tough all along. They evolved once they figured out what they were doing and how they should be doing it. I don't want to spend the time double checking all your cards but the '61 Drysdale PSA 3 for eg. You can't simply eyeball it from a distance, you need to compare it directly to the same card in high grade side by side. Then you'd have a video that did the comparison justice. If you do you will notice just how much better the color is on a higher grade card. You will notice more easily that the PSA 3 is slightly off center. You will also see from the back of the card that the corners on the PSA 3 are all weak. I'm not suggesting I don't understand that the 3 looks pretty good, especially at the casual glance, but saying that it doesn't merit the 3 that it got is the wrong approach. (or blaming old grading standards v. new grading standards)
I never intended to suggest that the Drysdale is a 10. But, It sure as heck is better than the 61 Koufax I compared it to.
I would not call those corners weak. Two of them appear to not be perfectly sharp but that alone would put it in what? a 6 range? the centering is good enough for a 6. and I do see the diff in color that you mentioned... on PSA's cert lookup, the colors run hot on the card in question making the blue on his cap off color and the green grass and trees in the background also off color. for whatever it's worth, on the pic here which I assume Graig got from the listing, look closer to normal. I can't see how this card is anything worse than a 5 and the Koufax Graig shared.. yes, that's what a 3 looks like to me
I have to ask, I thought this upcoming year, would be a year that this 70 year old would get cards graded for the first time in my life….i am thinking no after this
Grading isn't worthless in my opinion. It does provide some information. But, using our eyes in conjunction with the grade, provides the information to make the best decisions in my opinion.
@@MidLifeCardsthank you for your insight Can’t wait for next video
I love poorly assessed cards.
Yep. It’s the low hanging fruit.
These sales are absolutely amazing. All the buyers should be wearing ski-masks today. Talk about eye appeal.... The Don Drysdale basically was free. Come on...
LOL.
Graig, I truly believe they're so cheap because they're reproductions and the graders know it.
What are reproductions? The cards?
🎉 Can you make a video with the exact same cards in the same grades just like this video say an old Mickey mantle 3/4 compared to a new slab mantle same card in a 3/4 thanks!!!
Yeah. I can try to do something like that soon.