Sports/TCG Card Talk

[scott]

Have had a little bit of crossover talk in the Spurs forum so I thought I'd just start this here for anyone who wants to talk cards. I've been liquidating quite a bit of stuff (just sold my 86 Fleer Jordan #57 tonight) because I'm pretty disgusted by the industry, but I'm saving a few goodies.

Here are a few of my favorites of things I'm going to be holding on to long term.



These are three pretty rare Wemby rookies. The Cosmic is a Pop 13 with only 27 total graded examples. The Deca is Pop 20 with only 89 graded examples, and the Select Silver is Pop 71 with only 98 graded examples. I've got some more Wemby stuff if folks are interested in seeing it.

On the non Wemby front of current Spurs, here are some favorites:

 

[scott]

I also have a pretty rad Charles Bassey collection

 

[ambchang]

I’m robbing your place

I only had some stuff from the junk wax era when I was a kid. So nothing valuable. I think the most valuable card I have was a Scottie Pippen autographed fleer insert.

My favourite was the David Robinson fleer rookie sensation.

 

[Kick-Stand]

Have had a little bit of crossover talk in the Spurs forum so I thought I'd just start this here for anyone who wants to talk cards. I've been liquidating quite a bit of stuff (just sold my 86 Fleer Jordan #57 tonight) because I'm pretty disgusted by the industry, but I'm saving a few goodies.

Oh man I have that 86 Fleer set, most of it autographed. I think the only cards I never got signed in it were Jordan, Ice, Norm Nixon, and Clark Kellogg. Used to go to the games at like 4:00PM so I could get players to sign before anyone showed up.

 

[Fabbs]

Sold out a long time ago.
Bird-Magic-Irving, Wilt, DRob.

Was going to get back in, and......
found out virtually every big rookie card (Wemby etc) has to be pre ordered. You couldn't even walk into a shop and luck out and find one in a box like the old days?

 

[BacktoBasics]

I’ve collected and bought cards at various moments throughout my life. Over the years it’s just been pushed down the line as far as hobbies go. There’s nothing to really get out of it. It’s not a skill or art.

I don’t know. It’s cool to collect but then what? Just stare at them.

I got bored.

 

[scott]

Oh man I have that 86 Fleer set, most of it autographed. I think the only cards I never got signed in it were Jordan, Ice, Norm Nixon, and Clark Kellogg. Used to go to the games at like 4:00PM so I could get players to sign before anyone showed up.

Is your Jordan in good shape? Mine that just sold for $6900 was a BGS 7. Corners and edges were in really good shape for the era, but had a little bit of surface damage which brought it down. If you have a full in tact set, it's definitely worth a nice chunk of change!

 

[scott]

Sold out a long time ago.
Bird-Magic-Irving, Wilt, DRob.

Was going to get back in, and......
found out virtually every big rookie card (Wemby etc) has to be pre ordered. You couldn't even walk into a shop and luck out and find one in a box like the old days?

You definitely can find the big cards in a box, but the economics of it are absurd. A bigtime mainstream set like Prizm, for example, would run you like $1000-1500 per box. A Wemby Silver Prizm in a PSA 10 currently trades at like $1700. But your average box is probably going to return you more like $200-300 if you are lucky.

The big time boxes, like Flawless, would go for $8,000-20,000 depending on the year and the known pulls. You can pull a million dollar card out of those sets, but most of the time you're going to return less than $1000. It's totally gambling at this point, not like when we were kids and you could just pick up a pack for $2 at the corner store.

Buying boxes is absolutely the worst way to collect - the best way is to just buy the guys who you like on the secondary market or buy/trade for them at card shows or platforms like Veriswap.

I'd imagine probably 80% or more of all individual card transactions at this point happen on eBay, it is a pretty efficient marketplace.

 

[scott]

I’ve collected and bought cards at various moments throughout my life. Over the years it’s just been pushed down the line as far as hobbies go. There’s nothing to really get out of it. It’s not a skill or art.

I don’t know. It’s cool to collect but then what? Just stare at them.

I got bored.

Yeah, I'm generally with you... another reason I'm getting out. I couldn't get my kids into it and now that the industry is turning into an unregulated gambling industry I'm glad they didn't. Eventually I'll do something like get my Bassey collection put in a nice display for my office and I like having these cards of the players I like... but I do often wonder what the point is (and thus I've stopped buying). In a way, the Bassey stuff was a great outlet. His cards are cheap to acquire and I have a (loose) personal connection to him which makes it cool for me.

 

[Kick-Stand]

Is your Jordan in good shape? Mine that just sold for $6900 was a BGS 7. Corners and edges were in really good shape for the era, but had a little bit of surface damage which brought it down. If you have a full in tact set, it's definitely worth a nice chunk of change!

Centering is like 70-30 but otherwise really nice shape on the Jordan. A lot of the autographs were kind of bad though because I didn't realize hey get these in sharpy instead until maybe halfway through the season lol.

 

[ambchang]

For some reason I have the 86 Fleer Jabbar and magic, which shockingly is supposed to be sort of valuable now that I looked it up. I never had them graded, but I doubt they are one of those PSA10s.

 

[scott]

Yeah unless you've been caring for them in a specific way you're highly unlikely to score a 10 on any of these, but they could still be valuable!

Here is a handy tool where you can look up specific cards and the last sale for various grades: https://www.sportscardinvestor.com/cards

 

[rogcl1]

You definitely can find the big cards in a box, but the economics of it are absurd. A bigtime mainstream set like Prizm, for example, would run you like $1000-1500 per box. A Wemby Silver Prizm in a PSA 10 currently trades at like $1700. But your average box is probably going to return you more like $200-300 if you are lucky.

The big time boxes, like Flawless, would go for $8,000-20,000 depending on the year and the known pulls. You can pull a million dollar card out of those sets, but most of the time you're going to return less than $1000. It's totally gambling at this point, not like when we were kids and you could just pick up a pack for $2 at the corner store.

Buying boxes is absolutely the worst way to collect - the best way is to just buy the guys who you like on the secondary market or buy/trade for them at card shows or platforms like Veriswap.

I'd imagine probably 80% or more of all individual card transactions at this point happen on eBay, it is a pretty efficient marketplace.

LOL at $2 packs. They were pennies at the downtown Winn's when we went into town on the weekend and with bubble gum in them.I had mostly baseball from the early 60's and of course back then some of them ended up as noisemakers on my bicycle. I sold my collection in the early 90's for some reason pretty much when the vintage market was down. Also had many of the Post cereal cards.I still have some of the Topps basketball tall cards and football from 69 and 70. I cannot imagine paying what these things cost now. Then it was just fun.

 

[Amuseddaysleeper]

Picked this up over the weekend at a very very good price compared to comps. These look stunning in person.

 

[scott]

Love those All Kings! That one looks pretty clean in the pics... PSA is such a joke these days that it might be worth cracking and resubbing. PSA = Please Submit Again.

 

[Kick-Stand]

Favorite cards all time are the Billy Ripken Fuck Face and the Mark Jackson card with the Menendez Brothers sitting courtside at Madison Square Garden

 

[Kick-Stand]

Anyone remember the 80-81 Topps with three cards in one? Bought a box of wax packs for like $40 in 1986 and must have pulled at least ten of the Bird rookie / Dr J / Magic rookie card

That set inspired my Spursreport sig from twenty years ago lol

 

[inagra]

Love those All Kings! That one looks pretty clean in the pics... PSA is such a joke these days that it might be worth cracking and resubbing. PSA = Please Submit Again.

Back in the day I bought all my cards as bgs9.5 when it was the club leader. It’s been a while since I bought. What is the general vibe between bgs and psa these days?

 

[Amuseddaysleeper]

Love those All Kings! That one looks pretty clean in the pics... PSA is such a joke these days that it might be worth cracking and resubbing. PSA = Please Submit Again.

Haha cheers but with how much stricter PSA has gotten with grading lately I’d hate to crack it and have it come back with an 8!

 

[Amuseddaysleeper]

Love those All Kings! That one looks pretty clean in the pics... PSA is such a joke these days that it might be worth cracking and resubbing. PSA = Please Submit Again.

Haha cheers but with how much stricter PSA has gotten with grading lately is hate to crack it and have it come back with an 8!

 

[scott]

Back in the day I bought all my cards as bgs9.5 when it was the club leader. It’s been a while since I bought. What is the general vibe between bgs and psa these days?

PSA is definitely far and away preferred over BGS at this point. Just as an example, Wemby Prizm Silver RC last sale was $1425 in PSA 10, only $800 in BGS 9.5. It has definitely flipped big time. And PSA has recently acquired BGS, just FYI.

Haha cheers but with how much stricter PSA has gotten with grading lately I’d hate to crack it and have it come back with an 8!

They are super inconsistent and honestly it's a huge risk. There are guys who make a living out of working the system... look up Surgie Boi on IG or Twitter... I've seen him crack 6s and resubmit for 10s.