Here's Why I Collect Low Grade Vintage Cards!! Buying The Card, Not The Grade...
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ต.ค. 2024
- Grading companies have changed the hobby, no doubt about it. So many collectors are chasing those cards with 10 grades, and sometimes forgetting to pay attention to what the card itself looks like. Well, I actually collect low grade vintage cards. The grade means much less to me than it does to most collectors. Whether you like PSA or SGC, the grade gives us some information, but the grade is just an opinion. My strategy is to collect cards with low grades but high eye appeal. What exactly does that mean? Well, I want cards that look good, despite a low grade from the grading company. It doesn't matter if you collect Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Hank Aaron, or lesser known players. I really stick to this philosophy in my collecting. Let's take a look at some cards in my collection to get an idea of what that means.
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All statements and opinions shared in this video (and all of my videos) are for entertainment purposes only, and are not investment advice. I consider Sports Cards to be a hobby, and not an investment. If you're interested in investment advice, I recommend connecting with a certified financial planner.
Graig. You are preaching to the choir with me. I also enjoy having cards in my collection that can be well worn with many problems if it is pre war and very rare. In many cases you might consider yourself lucky just to hold one. Looking at your Doby card. If you read the original grading rules and apply to that card. There is no visible reason that card shouldn’t be a 4. Just my opinion from a collector that has been collecting before there were grading companies. In that case you have a great card at a very good price.
Keep up the good content.
Thanks Don. Looking forward to seeing you in Strongsville.
I’d certainly have the Duffy card re-graded! The grade is received is ludicrous!!! It looks more like a 5-6.
I'm considering crossing it to SGC.
Awesome cards, Graig! I took notes during the video because I'm a nerd! I think most of them are indergraded by half a grade to a full grade based on eye appeal. I think the most egregious is the Yastrzemski. I had that as a 6. Great video! I really enjoy these. Thanks, my friend.
Thanks Billy. I think that Yaz is a beaut.
Beautiful cards Graig, great eye appeal. Those are the type of cards I look for.
We're twins. I'm just glad you're safe down there, Orlando!!
I collect the cards with the best value, not just low grades. Just like the Rickey Henderson card, I would get the card in the grade before it skyrockets in price. The 7/8 are the best cards to get for that card. I bought a PSA 8 1979 Ozzie Smith for $200. I had a bunch of 7's in the past, but I keep on upgrading until I am content. My Ozzie and Henderson rookies in the grade of 8 are never being upgraded, because a 9 is absolutely insane for an opinion. I am looking for a 1955 Bowman Hank Aaron right now and I would even go to a 6. A six typically goes for $600ish. However a 7 will double or triple that.
Great point. Best value is sometimes one grade below the big jump in price.
Nice discussion and I agree completely. We are on card auto collectors so the card condition is a factor for eye appeal but more than anything the auto has to really be nice for us to enjoy 😀
Jerry and Amanda
Agreed!!
Amazing cards, Graig! I agree... the cards look nicer than the grades. Great eye. We finally got power back here in Central Florida after Milton.
Thanks so much. Glad to hear you're safe and sound. I checked on my buddy Orlando yesterday. He's ok as well.
An 8 turning into a 9 multiplies the value by 10X. Hence PSA stands for Please Submit Again. Remember that 1958 Koufax I showed you that had initials scrawled on the back and PSA missed it? It illustrates the fact that humans are involved, and they are under pressure to grade a million Pokemon and ultra-modern cards every month, and many of those that don't earn a 10 get resubmitted. I don't think vintage cards get a whole lot of time devoted to them.
We rely to much on the "trained eye" of PSA.
Question .what do you consider a player's -True rookie card?
I graded all the cards higher except the Bowman Minoso, and Monty Irvin which I graded their grades. The biggest surprises was the Ted Williams, and the Jim Brown which I graded the Ted a 5 and the Brown a 6. That was fun.
Thanks for participating and letting me know how you did.
Spot on Graig and your cards are absolutely blazers 🍒🍒🍒 I think those of us buying up the best looking cards possible in any grade will be rewarded in the future. Not the ones buying the highest grade blindly. I think people forget that it wasnt that long ago where 7 8 9 graded cards had a normal price gap between them. It wasnt unitl the crazy boom that those high grade examples regardless of what they actually looked like shot to the moon. To me that ship has sailed and the future could tell a different story and one I believe will be focused on what the card actually looks like rather than the number on the slab that a human gave it. These are my opinions and I could be wrong ,but I for one sold off my high grades that did not look like high grades during the last few years. So my money or collection is where my mouth is 😜👊🤙🤙
Thanks Dylan. I think your "downgrading" is one of the smartest things I've seen anyone do in the hobby.
Hi Graig! The eye appeal of your cards is out of this world. You have a real talent and I’m slowly developing mine. Have a fantastic weekend, my friend!
Thanks so much. I appreciate that.
I just love love love this blind study - and IMHO it’s the absolute best way to find and curate a collection. I won’t share my independent scoring here because no spoilers! But every one of my eyeball grades was above the PSA assigned grade. Expert collecting 101!!!!
Thanks Mook. I appreciate you, my friend.
The Hubble Telescope!!! That’s awesome!!!
LOL.
Great video Graig.
I have been watching your channel for a little while now, and at this point you have me completely sold on buying eye-appeal versus the grade. That Jim Brown in particular looked like a 6 to me! The Matthewson is a puzzler too. I had that as atleast a 4. I will give grades a lot more consideration to cards from the 1970s (I mostly collect pre-war through 1979) as they are less expensive, but if I buy an 8 or 9, it’s got to be a beautiful 8 or 9. I must say though, one of the cards I have that I am astonished by is a 1975 Bob Gibson. The colors are brilliant, and the card is in great shape and it only got a 6!
Thanks,
Greg
Thanks Greg. I appreciate you watching and I appreciate this comment.
Good topic. Good thoughts. Great points!
Thanks John. When you're Hobby President, I hope you don't forget about me.
2's are the new 7's. Great collection of beautiful Messterpieces. Such a great eye. Appeal
Thanks Mr. Petty.
''2's are the new 7's.'' Not when, I'm sober. Hope you're doing well, Mike!
The Ted i think a 4.5
I love it.
Nice video. Love that T206 Duffy card.
Thanks!! It's a beauty.
That should be their positioning statement! Believe it or not, I got it on Whatnot!
Good call. Would be a great slogan.
I'd say be thankful for the apparent undegrading if it checks all the boxes and gets you a favorable price. An ugly flip side scenario would be that PSA's upcharge schedule offering financial incentive to over grade certain classes of cards to realize the upcharge. I've not heard that accusation made yet.
Good points.
Those are all great cards. They all look better than the grade, but that 2.5 particularly sticks out as undergraded to me. Congrats on the amazing cards
Thanks Brent. I appreciate you leaving a positive comment.
I’ve been buying various Baltimore Ravens variations 2023 Donruss optic rated rookie cards lately. The only thing I’ve noticed is that back being severely off centered. But I buy ones that look closest to 60/40 for my own eye appeal with mag cases.
Let's go Ravens!
Everybody has a different opinion of what makes a card eye appealing. I love that about the hobby.
Love the low grade vintage cards, enables me to collect 50s and 60s cards with a budget. Certainly not collecting to make $$$
Me too!!
I just feel like, PSA, should offer ''eye appeal'' courses, not just to graders. But, to the collectors as well to give us some insight into, what their trained eye sees, what we don't see. Of course, transparency would be the best solution, imo. However, they don't do that either which, they should but, they don't care, so I'm inclined to believe they remain as the hobby's leader due to brand name. Paying a premium for their label.
I think doing a TH-cam training where they "teach" us how they grade.....would be really interesting and helpful...and help their PR as well.
The set registry, having a ton of influence. It would be nice to know how they view eye appeal and technical grade or if it's really just the same thing that, incorporates all the variables. Corners, surface, color, centered, etc. Yeah.
Nothing better to me as a collector than lower graded T-206's that are centered and have tobacco stains on them.
There are many issues to address. One of the biggest things with you personally is you can too often talk yourself into one or two aspects of the card hitting that 'eye appeal' and you ignore the negative. While that's fine for your personal collection, it's not reality concerning grading. You'll look at a card and "look at the color!' or 'those are really sharp corners' or 'the clarity on this card is amazing' etc... It feels like you've trained yourself to find the good in a card and overlook what a lot of others find distracting/what makes the card grade lower. Again, no issue whatsoever with that for your own collection but when it comes to the actual grade a card should receive, you're deceiving yourself into thinking 'it doesn't look like it should have graded a 3'.
We can see the proof of that in someone like Chris Sewall when he submits cards for grading. He is super realistic, writes down the grades he expects his cards to get before sending them in, and a very high percentage of the time is dead on/right in the ballpark you're talking about. Sure, there will be an outlier here or there but that's what we have the word outlier for. If you and Chris did this as a contest, self graded like 10-20 cards, sent them to PSA and saw who was closer upon getting them back I'd put my entire life savings on him winning that contest hands down.
Next, while a card does have a range it is likely to grade when you send it in, you make it sound like it's equally likely that if you send in (speaking of mainly vintage cards) a PSA 8 for regrading it has equal chances of receiving a 7-8-9. This isn't true. The higher the grade already is on a card it is a _lot_ a _lot_ a _lot_ less likely that if you resubmit that card it will come back a higher grade. I offer you an experiment for your channel. It will be of no cost to you and likely a pure waste of money for me but interesting enough for me to carry out. I'd be willing to crack ten Pete Rose 1978 Topps cards graded a PSA 9 and resubmit them for grading. What percentage do you think will come back a ten? A nine? An eight? Other? The reality is that there's almost no chance for a ten, a lot of nines, and a small percentage of 8s. If you go down to the lower cards you'll have more fluctuation in the grades because there are more issues with the card.
"I'm not a person who goes for the high grades. I am about the eye appeal." You know what has great eye appeal generally speaking? Cards with high grades.
Thanks for taking the time to write such a lengthy response.