Is it still basically impossible to get good grades on die cuts or has that improved?

Every time you add a corner PSA gets an erection over the chance of murdering it. From what I've seen, I think you're better off at BSG but it could just be the specific cards I watch.

You are so right. They probably have thousands of photos and they use the same one twice. We just have to laugh about it I guess!

I've only sent in three die-cuts so far, and each got an SGC 9.5. That said, they were Select, so they're still mostly "regular" compared to all the cuts out of a Spectra.

All fantastic pickups. Love Spectra. I'm a sucker for nebulas. I like that most raw sales are cheaper than you would expect for it to be.

Yep, we can only laugh.

As long as we open our wallets they don't give a damn anyway.

I started collecting in the early 90's with my son. We'd go to the card shows in hotel ballrooms on the weekends around the KC metro.

I had no money to buy anything. So I'd buy boxes and pull the rookies and put them in sleeves. Wait and see if any hit. Sometimes I'd hit on an Alex Rodriquez and everyone wanted one. I'd trade them an Alex for a card I wanted. Or one that my son wanted.

Then they started to overproduce the supply and the market collapsed. I ended up giving all my cards away when I moved in 2010. I gave Phobia 3 big plastic tubs of cards. We'd split whatever money came of it. Last time I checked the cards were worth thousands. Now they were virtually worthless. I still enjoy my cards I kept and my display that I'll post later.

Damn, BRC. I hate that you and your son experienced that. I'm definitely in the hobby as a collector and not an investor, so I'm in the camp that hopes Mahomes autos someday drop to affordable levels for the guys just trying to have a cool display in their man cave... Looking forward to your next post with photos.

Funny thing, high graded junk wax era cards are selling for a premium, if you ask me. A simple card like an 87 topps George Brett wil fetch close to $50 in psa10. Kinda throws a wrench in player collecting. And PSA raised their grading fees considerably a few years ago so I don’t see those prices coming down.

So if you have cards, even junk wax era, that’ll grade high, it might be worth sending a sample submission to test your own eye. If you get some 10s, maybe bite the bullet and send in a bigger sub. You potentially sell off the ones you don’t care about to get your keepers graded that way. Just a thought?

Juice isn’t worth the squeeze there, IMO. You either wait a year for your card to come back or all the increase in value is eaten up by grading fees, or both.

My father-in-law hand made the frame and the card pedestals by hand. My wife painted the ball field. I rotate cards through the display. Right now it looks like I’m an old school collector but that’s just the ones out currently.

I can’t get the pic to atta h to this post, keep getting a fail message

It’s there. Grading bulk is what? 14 or 16? I’ve filled a number of sets with my own subs and sold the rest of the sub

So if you’re doing PC you can supplement with grading stuff you’ll sell. The gamble is getting the grade. I just used the 87 Brett as an example.

I had a huge Bo PC and cards like the 87 topps could be had for $20 in psa10 and that card will fetch a solid 125 or more now. Junk wax cards will bring way more than they’re worth in high grade. But it’s a gamble no matter how you look at it when grading

here ya go

Picked this up on ebay the other night. I'm pretty sure this is Salvy's very first card from the Burlington 2008 Appalachain League team set. This card itself is quite rare, but this one is even rarer yet as it's also autographed. I'm going to send it in to PSA for grading/authentication because it's in impeccable condition.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...0d0cce54_z.jpg

Very cool find! Hope it comes back authentic.

What are your plans if it doesn't come back authentic from PSA?