General Forum

First let me say I hate grading.  I think it has contributed to the recent rediculous prices and I think it has hurt the hobby except for vintage.   It make sense to grade vintage cards.  

I have a 2017 Select Josh Allen XRC which is a redemption on an innsert card for the 3rd QB selected in the 2018 draft.  If I currently put it up on E-bay as ungraded I should be able to get $300- $400, if I get it graded and it hits an 9.5 or 10 it goes for $10,000 - $15000.  These are sold prices on auctions and Buy it Now.  I'm looking at this card which I have never pulled out of the toploader it was sent to me in and it looks prefect to me.  

It would be stupid for me to sell it to someone who has a PSA account and let them make $10,000+ dollars because I was too stubborn to create an account and send it in.    

So here are my questions if someone with an account could answer:

1)  PSA or BGS?  PSA has been around longer and in more established but it seems like BGS has tougher grading standards?

2)  How much to do a single card and how much is the turnaround.  I realize there are many service levels I guess im asking for the cheapest.

3) Do I pay shipping both ways?

Thanks for any help.  

You do not have to join with an account and it's not anymore. An account will get you free grades for 7-15 Cards depending on Level of Subscription. You can take advantage of Grading Specials by joining but you do not have to join to have one Card graded. 

You will pay shipping both ways and you will have to insure for PSA to ship back. You will pay based on the Value you set on the Card. You do not have to value the Card as graded. If you value the Card at $400 that is what you will insure it for but obviously if something happens that is all you would collect. 

A $400 Card would cost you $20 to Grade. If you value it at $10,000 you are probably looking at $100 or more. I did 9 Trout Rookies but that's when they were at $600 a couple of years ago. I believe when you get into the thousands it costs $50-$100 or maybe a bit more. I have more info on a minute.

When paying the $20 that should put you in the fastest turnaround time but right now that's up in the air on how long. My first experience two years ago was 4-6 weeks on the 3 orders I placed. Right now I have 96 Cards in with them. I did them under 3 different Grading Categories. The $20 Cards are in process but not in the finishing stages. One more has been received in and the other is still on the shelf waiting to be acknowledged as received. They all three went in the same package but we're in smaller packages inside. One group was $20 per. One group was $10 per and the other group $8.50 per. The $20 Cards are hopefully back in 1-2 more months.

They have been there a couple of months already. The others could take 6-8 months total. This is due to the global crisis and the high interest in Cards right now. I hope this helps you decide a little. I joined for the same reason. I had 9 Trout Rookies I pulled right out of the pack into a top loader and I saw no sense in not investing $20 to get a $600 return. I'm glad I held on to some and didn't sell them all for that though.

Comparing PSA vs BGS, I think you are right in your statement that BGS is a tougher grade to pull.  For example, I sent a card in last month to auction that was graded by BGS as a 9.5.  That card went for $1,200.  The same exact card was also up for auction and was graded a 10 by PSA however it sold for $850.  Maybe luck of the draw, I don't really know...

Thanks for the info guys.  I went and did an intial scout of PSA and BGS.  PSA has suspended some of there services and the only options left are 20 card minimum and membership required and $200/card express service.  Since I'm not going to be grading a bunch of cards this kinda puts them out of the running.  

It looks like if I do BGS it will be $70 for this one card   $30 grading fee + $28 return shipping + $12 insurance on return shipping.  

There is a cheaper grading fee of $15 for just an overall grade and not the usual 4 subgrades.  Does anyone know if this affects the value of graded cards not to have the subgrades?  

I haven't decided if I'm going to do it yet but I'm going to do BGS if I do.  

Personally I've never heard of a BGS with just one Grade. I don't have a lot of experience with them though. If you're looking at a possibility of $10,000 I think I would spend the extra $55 unless I found out for sure the $15 Grade would give the same benefit. Somehow I think the 4 Grade would have to have a better outcome.

Well I was looking at the card under a brighter light and now I notice a hairline scratch looks like it was made by whatever machine makes the borders.  it's on one side and not on the other.  Barely noticable but pretty sure the graders will catch it.  That shoots the $10000, so I'll just keep it as trade bait for now and see how his playoff run goes.  

Just curious, how much would that bring the grade down?  If it knocks it down to say an 8, would it still be worth over $1,000?  If so I'd still look into grading it, though I admit I've never had a inclination of grading cards myself.

Take a look at my message to you.  I think you are better than you think.  Message me back if you want any futher opinions.

Thanks, Greg

I would say another thing to consider if you are looking at 6 month plus turnaround times on the grading is how you think the market for the card may change in that time.

Obviously a good playoff run would help boost the value and even if they loose this weekend it most likely won't lower it.

However, would a new season have started by then? Maybe a poor start or injury would lower it, or conversely a great start could raise it.

Will the hobby be the same then? Not living in the US I don't know what the prevailing opinion is on when there may be an improvement with the pandemic. Is there an expectation that everyone may be living more "normal" lives again by then and cards may have lost some popularity?

Not being a NFL collector I don't know if the above prices would be normal for this sort of RC or if they have had significant recent inflation.

Either way, I don't know the answers to any of those questions but just thought they are probably things that would be worth at least considering especially if grading turnaround times are that long. You should not really be considering what the current market situation is but what your best guess is the market will look like whenever you would expect to get the card back.

All the best with the decision.

(Oh and I know little about grading and actively avoid buying graded cards but from what I have seen the sub graded BGS slabs go for much more than the overall grade only ones.)