General Forum

I recently pulled a 2020 Topps Archives - Green Holo-Foil Nolan Ryan (SN15) from a hobby box purchased at Target. One sold on Ebay last week for $55.34. 

I'm hoping to get some advice on whether submitting this card for grading would be worth the expense. For $34.00 grading/ insured shipping, it would need to be worth at least $90 just to recoup the cost of grading, otherwise I'd be better off just listing at $55 and keeping my fingers crossed. 

I can't be certain, but I would expect the card to be graded as a 9 or 10. It went straight from the package to a magnet case. 

Does anyone have any thoughts on whether this would be worth submitting to be graded? I'm not even sure if I do want to sell it, but I figure if I'm going to get it graded, I might as well do it sooner than later. 

Thanks in advance for any advice!

I'm biased against grading to begin with and especially so for modern cards. Auctions can be a crap-shoot as it is and the highest prices for most cards tend to be immediately after the product's release. The more you move away the less novel the item is as collectors (and I hate to say, new investors) move on to the next new release. With the cost to grade the high and the time it takes to turnaround it may not be worth it. If you had planned on holding onto it this would be a personal preference. If you want to maximize return, considering you didn't spend anything to acquire this specific card, would to put it up as is. As you've seen, there is a market for ungraded. Last thought, and obviously not my call, but watch out for starting bidding too hight to start and turning bidders off.   

I dont know what modern Ryan autos sell for but I dont see it being worth it, especially if it grades less than a 10.  Get what you can for it raw.

Thanks, I appreciate the insight!