Monthly Archives: December 2012

Graded Card Registry

Why You Should Protect Your Sports Card Gems Right Now!

Welcome to the baseballcardprice.org blog, one of the smartest things that sports card collectors can do it to protect their sports cards. There are many different ways to do this and they do not all have to end up on a grading table in PSA, Beckett, SCG, of GAI or any other sports card grading company. But if you have a true gem, this is the route that is most recommended. Whether your intentions are resale or a treasure that will be left for your heirs, your cards need to be protected.

I have never been a fan of the pages that wish to inspire people to place their sports cards in books and page sleeves, as this is the best way to destroy the sharp edges that most sports cards have straight from the factory shipping process. By this admission I am not telling you to have your cards all graded professionally, but there are some incredible advantages to having this process done to sports cards that are worthy. Here is a short list of the advantages and disadvantages:

  • The ultimate protection for your sports card collectible
  • Increased price for cards that are returned in the Gem Mint category
  • Demand for these same high rankings by sports collectors that wish to complete graded sets from the registry provided by PSA
  • One direct downer, these cards most of the time do not reach the high grading expectations of the collector/submitter.
  • The cost is quite expensive, for instance PSA requires a membership unless you want to go through an already approved vender. I don’t know about you but I prefer to send them myself directly, no disrespect to the vendors.
  • You have to be a good judge of sports cards and their already current value, unless of course you are getting these graded for your own private collection regardless of the value of the card.
  • Invest some money into some of the high powered magnifying lenses which these companies use to grade your cards, this can give you a pretty clear and close indication of where your card will land, and can help you spot some of the negatives that your card’s grade will most probably be scrutinized for.

I hope that you can appreciate these tips to collecting sports cards and in the very near future have some of your baseball cards, or which ever sport you collect graded. It really is a neat way to protect your valuables, and take it from me someone that has over 5000 cards graded, it has enhanced many of my sports cards and elevated them into price ranges, that has most certainly afforded me the opportunity to purchase things I really wanted to add to my collection over the years. Thanks for reading.

2000 Upper Deck E Cards

2000 Upper Deck E Cards – Just Did Not Evolve

Strolling down memory lane and revisiting the evolution of sports cards, I always find special items to share with my readers and also critic this ever changing business. Going through hundreds of thousands of sports cards, is something that I would love the opportunity to revisit on a daily basis. So as a constant reminder to me of how the sports card industry has evolved I blog about it. Hopefully the younger collectors can find some interest in collecting cards when the prizes were not so extreme. When every sports card were not all numbered. When our motivation for collecting was not the turn around of a high end dollar collectible. Don’t get me wrong, it has long been a collectible market for the deep pocket collectors, but I will continue to share my sports cards like these 2000 Upper Deck E cards.

The 2000 Upper Deck E Cards

The 2000 Upper Deck E cards were not all they were cracked up to be. I am mindful that this was a semi-successful way to get autographed cards as well as Game used jersey cards into the hand of loyal Upper Deck collectors. It is just that the concept was way neater than the actual turnover of these cards. In case you are too young to remember or in the event that you just became interested in sports cards, I will explain how the process worked for Upper Deck enthusiast.

How the program worked. Very simple concept. You collected the Upper Deck major sports cards, Baseball, Hockey, Basketball, and Football. The packs randomly were selected to carry the Upper Deck E Cards, these cards all had serial numbers and the serial numbers were to be entered into the Upper Deck official website. The card would spin and reveal a winner or non-winner. The lists of winners were then visible on your own personal login on the site. The cards were usually mailed out within 2 months or so, some took longer. The cards were vast and some carried both game used memorabilia and autographs. Others just memorabilia or just autographs. Most certainly an innovator Upper Deck lost some steam in recent years with the loss of the NFL license in 2010. Below find an excerpt of the wikipedia page for Upper Deck:

On April 7, 2010, Upper Deck announced it would no longer be licensed to produce NFL trading cards. Upper Deck spokesperson Terry Melia noted on his Twitter account that, “UD was unable to come to terms with NFL Properties. No NFL Properties-licensed football cards from UD in 2010.” Upper Deck owner Richard McWilliam said, “Over the past year, Upper Deck has attempted to negotiate a new licensing deal with NFL Properties. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we were not able to reach agreeable terms, and therefore will not be issuing any NFL Properties-licensed trading cards for the 2010 season. Upper Deck will continue to focus on its exclusive license agreement with the Collegiate Licensing Company and co-exclusive agreements with NHL Enterprises and the NHL Players Association, as well as its multiple entertainment licenses.

Topps Stadium Club

1993 Topps Stadium Club Football High Series – Jerome Bettis

The 1993 Topps Stadium Club Football High Series Jerome Bettis card is only one of many cards in the high glossy set that was the premier edition for the Topps Stadium Club line, that was initiated in 1992 with the baseball series. Topps was instrumental in chase cards, as this set includes one “first day production” card which is stamped and labeled as one of the first cards that came out during the production run. These similar creations were short lived as far as limited editions were when the numbered card was introduced later during this decade.

For sports collectors everywhere, the 1990’s most certainly was the make and break decade for sports collectibles and more importantly sports cards. The over-production of the early 1990’s was disastrous for the industry, but it somewhat corrected itself during the mid to late 1990’s with the numbering of sports cards, and eventually the autographed cards. I enjoy to this day going over the sports cards in my collections and in the next few months not only will I give visual shots of these cards I will right small informational tidbits so that the reader can enjoy the pictures and read my takes on these sports cards.

I also want to welcome any sports cards collectors that wish to write about their more recent pulls and I will offer a nice banner to go along with the article if the picture of the great pull is submitted along with the information. So if you have story to tell, please share it. I can be reached at lonestar_d@yahoo.com but I really prefer that you contact me via the comment page or at the top of my blog there is a post your story here link. I would really like to hear about your great pulls as in these later years I am concentrating on collecting the older stuff.