My basketball card is worth more when it’s graded, right? We have seen some very poor decisions made by collectors when grading their basketball card by a professional grading service like PSA or SGC. The biggest misconception is that grading a basketball card will make it worth more money. Grading a card or several cards from your collection can be a money losing proposition, especially if you don’t know what you’re doing. Kurtz Kardz grades a very small percentage of the cards from the collections we buy!
We will grade a basketball card only when it increases the value of the card. This is difficult to explain and usually a very lengthy discussion. Contact us if you would like a more in-depth explanation.
We value a basketball card based upon condition and then its market price in that condition. If the card is worth $1,500 in a PSA 7 and also worth $1,500 in Nm (raw) condition, we’re going to value it at $1,500 whether it is ungraded or graded. You can spend thousands of dollars having your basketball cards professionally graded, but we’re still valuing the card at the market price based on its condition, regardless of how much you spent grading it.
There are times when you should have a card professionally graded. You first need to determine the grade of the card, then check the current market price for the card in that grade. An example of a good decision would be grading a 1961 Fleer Jerry West Rookie for an SGC 7. If it grades a 7, you increased the value by $500 over the raw/ungraded value. Great decision when you only paid $100 to grade the card! However, if you over graded the card and it comes back an SGC 6, you have not increased the value of the card versus the raw/ungraded value. You just spent $100 in grading fees for NO reason. This is the point where you need to realize that you could waste money grading cards and get no appreciation in value.
If you want to professionally grade some cards to see how they grade, I highly recommend it! Take 4 of your more valuable cards and get them graded. Look at the grades when they come back to see if you were accurate on your grade predictions. Over my 26 years I have talked with many collectors and all of them were disappointed with their grades. Don’t grade cards just to grade! It very seldom increases the value of the card. If the grades for the 4 cards don’t come back as you expected, STOP grading cards!! Find a dealer you trust, show him the cards, and then listen to how he grades a basketball card.
Show me the cards you had professionally graded when I come see you. Cover the grades with masking tape and let me grade the cards. You will be amazed at how close my grades are to the grading company’s. I have been doing this for a long time and know how to look at a card. You just reacted and thought, it’s not so hard to look at a basketball card and grade it, what’s the big deal!?!? If you will give me the chance to meet you in person, I will show you why my expertise in grading cards is a BIG DEAL!
A very sad story
I was contacted by a gentleman who had a 1949 to 1952 Bowman baseball collection. There were 556 cards in the collection and they were all graded by PSA. He had a very nice spreadsheet and forwarded it to me. The grades were anywhere from a PSA 1 to a PSA 4, the majority being 1 or 2. There were no Jackie Robinson, Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, or Willie Mays cards in the collection. See where I am going with this? I made the gentleman an offer. He was dumbfounded and said, I paid more for the grading than what you just offered me! When I am paying $4 for a 1950 Bowman baseball common in a PSA 1 hoping to sell it for $6, do you think it makes sense to spend $18 to grade it?!?!
Contact us! We can provide more insight on this topic.