General Forum

I primarily only collect John Elway and I may start collecting Terrell Davis.  I have a pretty good collection of Elway cards.

How do you decide on what cards to submit?  Do you look at short # cards, memorabilia cards, auto, totally throw out base cards?  I have never submitted cards for grading but I would very much like to give it a try. 

I know with Covid response times are very long but which company would you recommend at the moment?  I have always heard PSA will get you the most on return, but I am not sure about their pricing, etc.

Thanks for any advice you can give me.

Bobby

Bobby, I have sent a few to get graded the last few years but all that I sent in were rookie cards with or without autographs.  Each card that I did send in, I was as critical as I could be looking at the card before I decided to submit.  I am not a professional grader but feel I know enough to have a good idea if the card can grade high.

I have only used BGS and really haven't had any complaints.

This is just my opinion, but I track a lot of low SN cards.  I think there are two senarios to consider.

1) If you just want a card graded/slabbed for personal reasons, there is no wrong answer.  They are well protected and look great.

2) Grading for selling: I would suggest that grading a card for sale and two major risks.  The obvious is what grade you will get.  A Gem Mint grade, super. A Mint 9, depends on the card (RC, low serial number - SN 25 or less) awesome.  The second is the cost of grading.  PSA & BGS now increase the grading cost depending on the expected value of the card.  For a Tom Brady or Mahoney that will go for $500 to $$$ then so what.

But my opinion is that is a card won't sell ungraded for $100, maybe $50, it's probably not going to get enough extra money for the risks.  Maybe a 10 does pay off for a $25 card, but a Mint 9 probably won't.  I track a lot of these auctions for fun.  There are a lot of nutty sales right now and I have had flippers recently re-list cards they bought for 2x to 8x what I sold them for.  (One was a 2019 PP Gold Elway - but he's a collector).  It's fun to watch and I hope they make some money.  But I won't spend $25 plus unless I am sure a Mint 9 will get a return.

All just my observations of watching these types of cards for the last several years.  It's interesting to me.  Good luck.

Greg