High Grade Cards

I have not looked at any high grade cards in a long time because it drives me nuts to look at them, almost all of them seem to have some flaw that can be detected right away and it drives nuts that people are willing to pay for the number and not the card.

Well, I was checking out the Goodwin auction and noticed there was a lot of high grade cards. I looked at the 3 1955 Topps 10's, only one of the 3 I thought might warrant such a good, but how the one with the obvious registry being off can get such a grade, even Nrmt is beyond me. I checked out the rest of the 8's and above and found a few more that were off register with these grades. I just don't understand.

It is such torture for me to look at these cards, why do I punish myself. Is there therapy available for this?

Lee

Lee...I totally agree! It is insane how lots of psa 9's-10's are off center as well...PSA is so variable with their qualifiers. Personally...give me a nice 3-5/30-40-50...and I'm happy as a lark...I'd much rather take the thousands saved and buy more/other cards...but to each their own!

Personally I think those who buy these cards need the therapy!

even with the newer stuff like my 1990 opc cards i can't tell a diff between an 8 and a 10...so not my thing to drop 5x-10x based off someone else's subjectivity.

Get ready to throw some rocks at me!

To me, the people who pay insane amounts of cash for 9s, 10s, etc. aren't 'true' collectors. It's like the "car lover" who walks down to the Ferrari dealer and buys one in cash, and then drives it for 5 minutes before putting it in the garage just so he can feel good about himself.

Any fool with money can buy a PSA 9, 10 registry set without doing any research or 'homework.'

I played that game for a while and did make some money, so it's hard to complain. Yet now I appreciate cards that are older and more rare. If they have a high grade (for the issue) then that's even better. I think condition does matter, there is certainly a difference between looking at a PSA 4 and a PSA 10. But at this point in my life it's hard to get excited about the set registry game, with its outrageous prices on fairly common issues.

The difference between an 8 9 or 10 is just a guess, you can't really tell the difference. One summer I decided to see how big a difference there was, I bought all my favorite RCs from the 1980s, several examples of Ripken, Mattingly, Boggs, Griffey, Straw, Clemens,Gwynn, Puckett, ect and really went over the top with Gooden and bought 50 graded Topps RC from psa8-10. I also bought a bunch of hof 1976 topps as well to see how they panned out. The interesting thing was that the 8's were usually the best looking cards and a fraction of the price. The other interesting thing was even though those these cards were produced in the millions they are like snowflakes in that each one was different. The end result of my experiment was buy psa8 for modern cards, they usually have the best color and centering and you can get about 3 graded 8s for the price of a 9, and don't even bother wasting your time or money with a 10 just flush your money down the toilet after you wipe !!
For vintage you can't beat a nice 3 or 4, 4 is a funny grade, either closer to a three or almost a 5. The key is to get the best looking 4s. But a nice 5 is really sweet but anything above that usually gets to be to much money to justify.

If I was going to go modern, I might only go for PSA 10's since they are the most rare, even if it meant much less quantity. Or BGS 9.5's - I'm most picky about the centering - I don't want a modern card with goofy centering, even if it is high grade. I don't know if a Jeter SP RC BGS 9.5 is a good investment, but if I was going to buy one modern card, it would be that.