Any baseball card collectors out there?

[montanafan]

My niece has two mint condition Ken Griffey, Jr. rookie cards, the Upper Deck and the Topps. Back when the Upper Deck one first came out, I took her and my nephew to a card shop. I gave her a quarter to put in a machine that gave you a chance to win certain cards and she won the Griffey Upper Deck one. It was worth maybe $20 at the time and so I bought her a case to put it in and she's never taken it out. Now over 10 years later, she's in her second year of college and looking to sell it to pay some expenses next year, but she was told that she'd have to get it appraised (or whatever you call it when it comes to ball cards) first and get some sort of certificate for it.

She took it to some card shops, but none of them could do it. They told her to send it to Beckett and they would do it, but she's afraid to send it for all the obvious reasons.

Anyone know anything about this sort of stuff?

 

[RaoulDuke]

what does beckett say for pricing on a mint card. Beckett is kinda skewed. I have a few nolan ryan rookie, 2nd year cards, an old 60's NY Yanks team series, and a bunch of old ones i snagged out of my grandparents attic. i rule.

 

[kranky]

The "certificate" thing they are talking about is having a grading service assign a grade to the card and encapsulating it in a sealed plastic holder along with a label that states the grade of the card. Once you have that, it's much easier to sell a valuable card.

Thousands of cards are graded by Beckett, PSA, and other grading outfits every month. No reason to be afraid. Send it registered mail (not certified). If you send it to Beckett, you'll get it back in a holder like the one in this ebay auction. The "7" is the grade, and that's kind of a typical one. Ten is the highest, but hardly ever given out. The grade makes all the difference in the price. Notice that that card graded a 7 sold for $42. This one graded a 10, and sold for $1,275.

You can look at some other Upper Deck Griffey rookie cards that sold on ebay here. These are completed auctions.

Realistically, the odds are overwhelming that it's not going to be a 10, regardless of whether it looks perfect or not. The differences are miniscule.

Info above is for the Upper Deck one, but the grading thing works the same for Topps.

 

[tigerbait]

look here

 

[montanafan]

Thanks kranky! I'm sure she must have heard about the $1,800 selling price or something similar, because she was talking about it possibly paying for a few months rent. I'm just as sure that she has no idea how difficult it is to get a card graded a 10 or the huge difference in price between that and even a 9. I'll show her your post and I'm sure she'll still want to get it graded, but she'll know not to be counting on it to pay those expenses.

As usual, you are "DA MAN" when it comes to lending a helping hand, thanks again!


Thanks to you too tigerbait . Griffey's cards are the only ones she ever really collected. I'll give her your link so that she can get a realistic idea of what some of her other ones are worth.

 

[Windogg]

HOLY COW!!! I have about 10 of the 89 UD Griffeys back in NYC in plastic cases. Time to bust them out.

I wonder what 2 Topps Cal Ripkin Jr. Rookies are worth now.

Windogg

 

[Soccer55]

If that UD Griffey card is worth that much as a PSA 10, I wonder how much my UD 1989 factory sealed set would be worth.....

-Tom

 

[b0mbrman]

graded is worth more than factory-sealed or fresh out the pack anyday

 

[b0mbrman]

whoot! double post

 

[whizbang]

Better sell them quick before he ruins his career being a spoiled sadsack in Cincy. You might wait till he hits his 500th homer (perhaps next year) and the price will rise temporarily due to the hoopla.

 

[Jothaxe]

<< Any baseball card collectors out there? >>



I used to collect them, but I got rid of everything but my Mark McGuire cards. I think I may still have his '87 Donruss rated rookie and a few of his '87 Tops.

-jothaxe