I want to show you my newest sports card...

[arrowheadnation]

The sports card market is absolutely booming right now. I sold off enough of my other stuff to buy this. There are only 10 of them. It is indescribably beautiful.

[Jewish Rabbi]

Is it still basically impossible to get good grades on die cuts or has that improved?

[ghak99]

Originally Posted by Jewish Rabbi

Is it still basically impossible to get good grades on die cuts or has that improved?

Every time you add a corner PSA gets an erection over the chance of murdering it. From what I've seen, I think you're better off at BSG but it could just be the specific cards I watch.

[Oz_Chief]

Originally Posted by Abba-Dabba

The parallels definitely have gotten out hand. The photos are even lazy shit nowadays. Usually, the same photo on the back of the card as the front.

You are so right. They probably have thousands of photos and they use the same one twice. We just have to laugh about it I guess!

[Pointer19]

Originally Posted by Jewish Rabbi

Is it still basically impossible to get good grades on die cuts or has that improved?

I've only sent in three die-cuts so far, and each got an SGC 9.5. That said, they were Select, so they're still mostly "regular" compared to all the cuts out of a Spectra.

[Abba-Dabba]

Originally Posted by Pointer19

Awesome find, Abba-Dabba. Getting a decently graded card for less than $40 is worth it to me; cut out the time to wait for not much of a premium. I've started to buy singles on eBay as well. I'm a sucker for the Spectra die-cuts. Pretty colors, low numbers, and I've gotten some on the cheap. Plan to send most of them into SGC.

All fantastic pickups. Love Spectra. I'm a sucker for nebulas. I like that most raw sales are cheaper than you would expect for it to be.

[Abba-Dabba]

Originally Posted by Oz_Chief

You are so right. They probably have thousands of photos and they use the same one twice. We just have to laugh about it I guess!

Yep, we can only laugh.

As long as we open our wallets they don't give a damn anyway.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by arrowheadnation

Yeah, sports card collecting has not been “for the kids” since the late 90’s. It’s big business. It is probably better described as high stakes gambling.

I started collecting in the early 90's with my son. We'd go to the card shows in hotel ballrooms on the weekends around the KC metro.

I had no money to buy anything. So I'd buy boxes and pull the rookies and put them in sleeves. Wait and see if any hit. Sometimes I'd hit on an Alex Rodriquez and everyone wanted one. I'd trade them an Alex for a card I wanted. Or one that my son wanted.

Then they started to overproduce the supply and the market collapsed. I ended up giving all my cards away when I moved in 2010. I gave Phobia 3 big plastic tubs of cards. We'd split whatever money came of it. Last time I checked the cards were worth thousands. Now they were virtually worthless. I still enjoy my cards I kept and my display that I'll post later.