[mysteried]

So funny story. I last collected baseball cards in the early 90’s. Ken Griffey Jr., Barry Bonds, Jose Conseco, and Ricky Henderson were all still going strong. Then the strike happened in 1994 and it made me angry so I quit collecting. Still haven’t gone back to collecting baseball because I just haven’t followed it much since then. I have no idea who any of the players are anymore and just can’t bring myself to really pay any attention.

Obviously a lockout could be negative to some people in the same way. I think the card makers could choose to continue to make cards regardless and maybe it wouldn’t change the market too much on the supply side. But, I would think that the market would flatten out some if the players aren’t playing and their demand wouldn’t change much.

[mysteried]

I was about to send my first grading order in to TAG when they closed submissions. I’ve never sent anything to PSA, but have considered just because of the higher value that is usually assigned to their grades.

I’ve sent in to Beckett and had reasonably good results. That was before PSA bought them though so I can’t speak to the current mess they seem to be having. They’re website is all messed up. They tried reopening submissions and had to shut it down quickly so not sure what is going on there.

I’m thinking about sending an order of Pokemon to CGC as they at least seem to come close to equivalent pricing to PSA. But the cost of it scares me off some.

The only place I’ve sent more than one order to has been Degree. I like the service, and like using it for PC cards as it slabs them up and still gets a grade. They don’t get the same value that you get from PSA or Beckett so I came to the conclusion that it wasn’t worth using for resale cards.

[mysteried]

Yeah, aside from garage sales and estate finds, I don’t think we’ll see the level of scarcity for a non-artificially created scarce card. Nobody is paying money for a 2026 base card in 40 years. It’s cool that the popularity of the hobby has increased that much, but sort of sad because none of us is likely to ever really find that needle in our haystack of bulk.

[mysteried]

Some super awesome slabs! Gonna have to see if I can catch the leader this month and score that Jordan…

[mysteried]

For sure. I choose to not be able to afford some of the super in-demand ones like Charizard, Pika, or Mew and find some of the less popular ones and collect some of those. It’s nice to be able to pick up the fancy full art illustrated rares for 30 or so and still have something that’s a little more collectible.

[mysteried]

I do wish I had more of these really old cards. I’ve got some late 60’s and 70’s Raiders cards that I should just send in to grade. The problem with most of those is that they’re PC so it’s expensive to grade something I’m not planning on selling anyways.

[mysteried]

Yeah, I think they could maybe accomplish more by just reducing the number of variations and just have the base set and one or two types of variants and see what happens. But maybe that’s just the 90’s kid in me that experienced when that was a thing in the junk wax era. Still not likely to make collecting exciting in that same way.

[mysteried]

yeah, I wish they would balance it more. It’s so hard to get any of it in most cases, that it may not make a difference anyways, but still would be nice. Some of the exclusive to hobby or exclusive to retail or this retailer or that retailer is also cool, but just adds one more variation to try and chase.

[mysteried]

Haha. Yeah. I’d shown him my collection of Yanma/Yanmega recently, so I’m hoping that’s the reason he recognized it. I may have to send one or two of them off. I’m thinking about giving CGC a try as it seems to be a legit contender for Pokemon grading instead of PSA. It has an annual membership and it’s a tiered submission cost so could get sort of expensive to submit if it weren’t for selling, but maybe worth a try.

[mysteried]

Yeah, that’s a nice card! I’ve got the Bowers out of this set and they’re nicely designed.

I do feel like the retail versions tend to be much more hit or miss as far as any good hits. But, good for getting some base for the PC and hopefully a hit or two.

[mysteried]

Yeah, I don’t get the hate either. On the one hand, it’s not licensed, and by definition not authorized by the NFL or NFLPA but by the players themselves. So, do the players get more? But, on the other hand, the licensed stuff is authorized and can use the logos and team names too.

Ones like this one, where you can clearly see the side of the helmet, it’s a bit annoying to me that the logo isn’t there, but still a cool design and a good card.

[mysteried]

Yeah, as an older Raiders fan, Tim Brown and Howie Long are a couple of my PC players, so when I found this one, numbered, and at a good price, I had to snatch it.

[mysteried]

I just got this one on a whim off ebay, but I may have to check out a box of them. Some of the unlicensed stuff, I think they have to get a bit more creative with and some of them are pretty cool.

[mysteried]

My godson is really into Pokemon too and he saw that card and said “but you have that one already” and truthfully, that’s the 3rd one I’ve gotten, but I really like it. When the main graders open back up, I may send a copule of them off.

[mysteried]

I’ve thought about that a few times. It would be nice if it were active in the sense that they also were participating, but I suppose as it’s a subscription service, active has to mean that they have an active subscription instead. That’s why we get the points based giveaways I guess.