Buy/Sell/Trade Forum

Hi all, first post here...  Looks like a great site.  I've been looking at various sites that deal with the $$ side of trading cards.  It amazes me that the "PSA rated" cards garner SO much more selling/auction value than non-graded cards.  I also noticed that to have a card graded by them, especially a sought after valuable card, can cost $1400 for the rating!  I honestly don't have that cash lying around to get the grading done BUT I do have some of the most sought after cards from '72 and '73 in Topps football (Staubach, Stabler, Bradshaw and numerous others) and wonder if it's worth trying for the PSA "official" rating.  My goal is to be to be able to sell for a nice return.  Seein the #200 Staubach going for $30,000 on a MT-10 rating blew my mind!  I've had my cards since 1972 when I was 10 years old, trading with friends, some passed down from my grandparents and most just bought by me in the early 70s at the 7-11 store.  The '73 collection is about 85% complete.  Oh, then there's baseball....  lol

If your looking to get a return then grading might be your route. It will give a piece of mind to some collectors that the card is real. But on the flip side some collectors hate graded cards. Especially here, but it is your collection so do what you want to it. PSA, SGC, or Beckett grade cards. If you are trying to sell I would get them graded. My opinion. 

Thanks so much for the reply.  Good, solid advice.  I called a company in NJ (JustCollect) not far from where I live, and I'll see what they might offer for the 1100 or so cards I have.  They're all the real McCoy, that I know for sure.

The thing to be careful about grading is not to get your own hopes up of how it would be graded, especially until you have had some graded and know a bit more what they look for.  A rating of 9 or 10 often fetches a premium, but a rating of 7 or 8 may barely pay for the grading fee.  It really sucks to hope (or even expect) a 9 rating and it comes back as an 8 or worse.

Thanks, and honestly, I’m expecting the worst so my hopes aren’t dashed.  :)

Belated welcome , Yeah people here tend to favor Raw VS Graded , but I collect both. Raw & Graded.& everybody is friendly and helpful here that I see.

The cost of unopened material has skyrocketed since the PSA/Auctions/ Ebay, because honestly that is the only way to fetch a gem mint 10, gotta be pack fresh and for some reason the graders know if it's right out of the pack and into the card saver. This right here is a collector's/traders site as someone mentioned so you won't have much luck selling them here.

I have said this before but I will restate.   If you can't get over $100 for a card, I would not have it graded.

I mostly agree with NJD, BUT...

If you are only trying to sell them, I would consider getting some graded JUST b/c they are vintage! I wouldn't send all of them in for grading though. Take your best-looking 4 or 5 cards and see what grades they get. Then you have a guideline for the rest of the cards. Vintage (pre-1980) cards are still good sellers and sometimes the grading helps. Being from the early-70s though, grading only helps for about a 7 or higher grade. Anything below a 7 wouldn't be worth the time/money spent to get those specific cards graded.

If you really want to sell them and get top-dollar, keep an eye on sales of similar cards on ebay.com, comc.com, beckett.com/marketplace and a few other sites to know what you should list them for individually. If you just want to clear out the cards, dealers are the way to go to get them out fast, but you lose a lot of money. It's ALL about the time you have to move them!

Thanks again for the replies, one and all.