Does anybody on here have any experience getting trading cards evaluated by a service like PSA or Topps? I have questions and want to pick your brain.
JSA and Beckett are the best 2 IMO
I’ll ask my buddy Scott… He has EVERYBODY’s autograph and is in to all this collectible stuff…
Have you ever sent off cards to be graded?
JSA and Beckett goes to most of the larger collectible shows. They will snap pictures and you don’t have to leave your signed item there.
Now if you want cards graded then they will take them so they can be encapsuled.with grade
Heard a lot of complaints about PSA. Long wait times, high prices, and inconsistent results.
Yeah James Spence (JSA) is the best by far
What makes them the best?
Their reputation in the business is untouchable. They grade strict but fair and that’s why they have been at the top for so many years.
And like I said they do so many shows which means you don’t have to mail your stuff to them
Thank you. I plan on going to the Tri Star show in February. Hope to chat with them there. Do they only do autograph authentication or do they also do grading of cards? I only see autograph authentication on their website.
For graded cards PSA and Beckett do that
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I would try to find a local card store and let them look at the cards first. PSA is slow, charges a lot and if its a vintage high value card, there is an upcharge based on the evaluation.
You can probably have someone at a local store review the cards and you an opinion as to whether it is worth submitting or not.
The local shop that I go to has a former PSA evaluator that will review cards for $3/each and tell you whether it is worth submitting.
Where do you go?
I live in DFW and go to Play Ball Sports Cards & Memorabilia in Arlington.
If you have cards from the 50s - 60s it might be worth having them graded. As you get into the 70s - 86, it really depends on the player, the sport, and whether the card is a rookie card, i.e. it may be worth getting an 86/87 Jordan rookie graded, but it would not be worth getting an 89/90 Hoops Jordan graded. Pretty much not going to be worth the cost to get any baseball cards between 81 - 00 graded. There are just very few cards during this era that were not mass produced. There are exceptions, like the 93 Upper Deck SP Derek Jeter, but they are few and far between.
Finally, the card market is going through a correction right now. Compare prices from the pandemic to now and you will see a drop across the board. I think this will also lead to a slow down in grading and maybe the prices for that service will drop.
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