I briefly referenced in some other pieces over the last month that I’d submitted five cards to BGS last month. I have never really cared about grading. I don’t collect graded cards. I find them a pain to be honest.
I’m no good at looking at a card to see how it looks, in grading terms. Fifteen or so years ago, I picked up a Jim Brown rookie. I traded away a LOT of stuff to pick it up, but it was worth it to me. At the time I still liked NFL football and the Browns were my team. Even losing interest int he NFL over the years I kept the card. I mean, it’s a Jim Brown rookie! Before I moved from Indiana, I had Andy at Baseball Card Exchange in Indianapolis look at some of my vintage football cards. I honestly just wanted him to take a look to see if he thought it was legit and not a fake. As the talk turned to condition, he immediately noticed a slight crease down the right side of the card. I would have been upset if I’d had thoughts of grading and reselling. I just shrugged it off, though.
Last month Beckett started taking grading submissions at our monthly local card show. We could drop off at one show, and they would grade and return by the next show. I knew that this was coming a couple of months before. So, I decided to take the leap and give it a whirl. I’m not good at examining, as I mentioned, so I had no idea what to expect.
Here you have it, the result of my submissions:
1 – Andrew Shaw Canvas Young Guns
I wrote last week that I’d come up with a way to “add” to my Shaw PC without adding. I had no idea what to expect on this grade, nor did I care. With the card being mostly black, I figured there were chips or something that I didn’t see.
Looks like I was wrong. I can’t even put into words how excited I was that this came back at a 9.5. I was happy just to get it back, but this put a little extra giddy-up in my step.
2 – Mario Lemieux 2010-11 Limited Autograph #/49
Like the Shaw, I had no idea what to expect here. The borders were black and I thought one of the corners was a little rough. I showed my small Lemieux PC two weeks ago, after I won an autographed card from a Beckett contest. This card was staying in my PC, regardless of how it came back.
I was as shocked by the one as I was the Shaw. Not too much I can add to this other than, “Welcome back to the collection, Super Mario!”
3 – Russell Wilson 2012 Prime Materials RPA S#25/25
This was sent in with one purpose, to sell. I hit this card in a box break with Exchanger Card Breaks about a year ago. It was expired, but Panini still had it and redeemed it. I had someone that I trust look at it and he was concerned about one of the corners, but thought it should be 9 and might get a 9.5. He was right.
At some point, I will get this back up on eBay with a Buy It Now price. I want a lot for it. I will get it, or I will keep it. Or, maybe I can find someone with a Gretzky rookie that would like to trade. Who knows?
4 – 1984 Topps Don Mattingly rookie
If you’ve been reading the blog from the beginning, you know about how I got this card. If not, you can find it here. Based on how I acquired it, I really expected a much better grade than this.
Apparently, there is an indentation in the card on the right side somewhere near his thigh. I didn’t even see it. Ah well, at the end of the day, this was staying in my PC anyway.
5 – 1955 Bowman Frank Gatski
I found out from a friend when I was in my late teens that Gatski was the grandfather of a guy I played Little League against and later went to high school with. Combine that with him being a Brown, and I had to pick one up. It was a few years, as I wanted to get it in person so that I could look it over. I truly thought this was going to get a better grade than this. It’s one of the best vintage cards I’ve seen. However, I don’t deal in too much vintage.
Like four others of these, this is staying in my personal collection. Getting a 6.5 wasn’t the end of the world for me. Per the Pop report, there are two 7s and two 8s out there, so I may have to search them out sometime in the future.
While I never was into grading, I can honestly say that I felt a ton of excitement when I saw three 9.5s out of the five cards I submitted. I can see myself getting hooked to this grading thing. Just what I need, another vice…
I do hope you enjoyed this look at my first submission.Russ If you like what we’re doing, please follow us on Facebook and Twitter and also look through some other pieces on the site. I’m still looking for more folks that would like to contribute, so let me know if you are! You can follow me on Twitter at @kin_kinsley, @beansbcardblog and @DFW_Card_Shows.
5 comments