Sports Card Strategy Overflow Show – Giannis SP vs Prizm, Colt Keith Autos, Caleb, Shedeur and More

1. Kicking off the show Scott Fuqua wants to pull the trigger on a Giannis card:

Is the Giannis 2013 SP #36 Auto in PSA 10 is a better “budget” option than the 2013 SP Base in PSA 10 that we have recommended on the website, or a better option than his 2013 Panini Prizm in PSA 10?

2. Matt Rubin asks for feedback regarding indicators cracking SGC/BGS’s in hopes of bumping to a higher PSA grade.

Do we use less common grading companies such as ISA or HGA, and how do their standards compare?

3. Next Ryan King has Keith Colt buying options for Bowman Chrome Autos:

What is a reasonable offer without insulting the seller and how much would we be willing to pay for several Colt Keith Bowman Chrome 1st Autos?

4. Skeeter Robinson is back looking for two answers related to NCAA Football:

Are there more affordable Caleb Williams options outside of his Bowman University Chrome 1st Prospect Autos? Will they move the needle enough to make plays on them now?

He picked up Sheduer Sanders cards last week, both the Blue Onyx Auto and the Onyx Base. While he waits for them to come in, he is pondering whether or not he should list as soon as he receives them, or hold in hopes of an additional spike that could realize greater profits. Are there any long term plays for this card?

5. Marty Friel gets feedback on cracking non-PSA 10’s to send to PSA in hopes of increasing card values:
How often do we do this? What is the risk/reward and how much upside is there really?

6. Ryan Borusky looks for answers on Silver Prizms and Rookie Ticket Autos and why they hold value in Raw:

Does a gem mint grade only add to the value of one of these cards? Does a sub-market exist wherein Silver Prizms and RTAs are traded without grading? Do other sub-markets like that exist in sports card trading? He recently got an ungraded Lamelo Ball Silver Prizm on the cheap estimating that given the right circumstances with the upcoming season that that card could yield a profit by itself. Is that the right mindset or should he be approaching the Silvers and RTAs differently?

7. Ed Kimble dives deep into questions regarding vintage baseball card sets:

He had a family member hand him 2 complete sets of baseball cards (1987 Fleer & 1987 Donruss). For the 1987 Donruss, most of the cards are still in their cellophane packs. Only one 'pack' in the set is open. What is the best play here? Is this simply the Junk Wax era or is there a play to get them grading ort sell them raw?

He also has some Topps '86, '88 traded and '87 Fleer Update.

How can he tell if the Topps Traded are Tiffany or not?

8. Alex Hammond looks for more information building on Lefty’s strategy to sell all of his PSA 9’s:

Have we noticed any drops in grades over the last 6 months?

9. Michael Bertoldi is new to the show and shares his own sports card story to help answer other common Q&A’s:

He grew up playing baseball, basketball, and football with baseball being the main one, and collected sports cards from all three. He was a big Ken Griffey Jr., Frank Thomas, and Chipper Jones guy. Was also a big Michael Jordan fan. He topped collecting sports cards probably around 8th grade, with some packs here and there after that. Fast forward to age 40. He coaches his son's coach pitch team, where through another coach he’s gotten back into the hobby. He sees his first MLB game, again in over 28 years, the Orioles vs Reds where Elly De La Cruz is playing in his first month of MLB, Matt McLain and Spencer Steer in their rookie seasons, Jordan Westburg in his first MLB game, and Adley Rutschman all in the same game! Then comes the cards.

His cards from childhood are worth next to nothing. He has Junior, Frank Thomas, and Chipper Jones rookies but I doubt any of them would grade an 8 or above. He attributes this to collecting them like a kid, taking them in and out of pages, etc.

He thought cards might be dead there for a while. Well, they're definitely back and it's way different now. It can be a lot to wrap your head around. Dudes have 18 different rookie cards in multiple different colors, with and without auto, numbered out of 1, 5, 150, goodness gracious! Gone are the days where there was one main rookie card from different sets/brands.

Who will he PC?

For baseball, he’s decided to go with players I've seen in person for now, particularly rookies and minor leaguers.

Other PC: He’s a University of Alabama alum. So he is collecting Bryce Young, DeVonta Smith, Jalen Hurts, Jahmyr Gibbs, Will Anderson, and others. Have bought multi-card lots of Bama Bowman. You can't PC everyone if you're going to make money!

His Questions for Discussion:
Lefty is into the 1st Bowmans and so is he. I've got Elly, Zach Neto, Matt McLain, Spencer Steer, Jordan Westburg. He doesn’t want to sell those guys, but would like to invest in and sell other 1st Bowmans. When it comes to 1st Bowmans, does Lefty grade them or flip them raw, and why? Isn't there a risk that once their actual rookie cards come out, do these decline in value? If so, how do you time that? If Jackson Holliday starts next season in the big leagues and has rookie cards come out, what happens to the value of his 1st Bowmans?

If Andy Cason was on the show, football. He likes Tank Dell and Breece Hall in terms of speculation. If he’s right on them being good plays, how would one capitalize on this? Grade them? Sell after one big game? After three big games? Do NFL collectors care about 1st Bowmans the way baseball collectors do? Is Breece Hall high level talent? His rookie cards are relatively cheap. Does Dalvin Cook’s signing degrade his value? Should he grade them now to try to have them ready for in season? Or keep them raw?

Additionally: Do PSA turnaround times make it more difficult to prospect, grade, and sell on a timeline?

He finishes with a question for Paul:

If he subscribes to Sports Card Strategy and Market Movers, will his profits cover the costs? Should he stop buying so many lower end cards and invest in fewer, but higher end? Is it a smart move to buy SGA Prizm silver, what about his lower level Prizm RC? Does it have to be the $400 version?

10. Lastly, Mike Williams has recently purchased several BGS and SGC slabbed cards in hopes of getting equal or higher PSA grades:

He wants to know everyone's approach when its time to make your PSA submission and determining:

a. Service level (are we submitting 20 cards @ Value Bulk/$19 just to keep costs down whereas most of the individual cards may have cost you less than $499 each to make us not concerned about turnaround time). Having multiples of the individual listed cards above, meeting the 20-card minimum, would we be going Value Bulk?

b. Declared Value. Do we think Graders peek at this number before assigning a grade?