Anyone here into baseball cards and know about sending your cards to PSA for authentication/rating?

[99MustangGTman]

Hey guys, admittedly i'm not a big baseball fan, and my Dad stopped following later in his life, but he loved Mickey Mantle. To my Dad in the 50s and 60s, baseball was the best thing in the world to him. My Dad left me a ton of baseball memorabilia from the 50s/60s. I have tons of gloves baseball cards, baseballs, bats and other items like that.

I never even dared taking my stuff to some type of sports store that would buy it because i'm pretty sure they would rip me off even if I kept my mouth closed.

What I want to do is send the Mickey Mantle 1959 Topps card to PSA for authentication/grading and I also have the infamous 1952 Mantle rookie card. I removed it to place it in a hard plastic piece to keep it from getting bent, but I noticed it's not a paper or whatever material cards normally use. The card is steel or some type of metal, and on the back it has the exact number out of 5000 and says limited edition. I know there are some 1995/96 reissues, which is a bummer, since the card is already a grade 1 looking piece and if it were a true 50s card, even a grade 1 of the 1952 Mantle card attracts a hefty sum. I've also looked at the 1959 card and I know nothing about grading, but I would think 3 or 4 based on others that look similar to mine. It looks centered, no discoloration, well probably some, but I just can't see it. There is a little bit of knurling on the bottom of the card. Otherwise no cracks, bends, or issues I can see. I know these cards are graded very harshly though.


I was going to send the 1952 one in, but after I saw it was metal, I thought it's probably a reissue of some kind and not worth much. I would really like to know about the card if anyone here knows? I tried using all kinds of search terms and I found another one, but it was just a sale ad on eBay. I can't find any useful info on it.

Any help or warnings would really help me as this is not an arena i'm familiar with. Thanks guys!

Here's one of many gloves I have, but this is a nicer one I have. Not looking to sell it though.

 

[DiB14-SAFD]

Here is my take with my limited experience.

The 1952 is a guaranteed reissue based on your description.
The 1959 looks good and if legit is definitely worth sending in to psa. Low end grades were selling in the 3-500 range while higher end grades were 2k+.
I can’t tell what the third card is without seeing the back. If you add a couple pictures of the backside of the cards it would help with identification.

Looked around but couldn’t seem to find that exact glove. There were a bunch of similar Rawlings gloves in the sold listings on eBay and prices were anywhere from 35-350 depending on exact model and condition.

 

[93Cobra#2771]

You need to do a deep dive into the memorabilia market. I'd suggest joining a few Facebook baseball card groups or forums or similar and start going from there.

It's not cheap to get them rated, but it can make a significant difference in pricing. The trick is deciding which ones to get rated.

My brother is into comics heavily, but not cards or I'd refer you to him for a bit of research. Sometimes, the collection together can pull more value than individual pieces, especially with paperwork trails or other provenance.

 

[SolarYellow]

What I want to do is send the Mickey Mantle 1959 Topps card to PSA for authentication/grading and I also have the infamous 1952 Mantle rookie card. I removed it to place it in a hard plastic piece to keep it from getting bent, but I noticed it's not a paper or whatever material cards normally use. The card is steel or some type of metal, and on the back it has the exact number out of 5000 and says limited edition. I know there are some 1995/96 reissues, which is a bummer, since the card is already a grade 1 looking piece and if it were a true 50s card, even a grade 1 of the 1952 Mantle card attracts a hefty sum. I've also looked at the 1959 card and I know nothing about grading, but I would think 3 or 4 based on others that look similar to mine. It looks centered, no discoloration, well probably some, but I just can't see it. There is a little bit of knurling on the bottom of the card. Otherwise no cracks, bends, or issues I can see. I know these cards are graded very harshly though.

Let me give you a nickel's worth of free advice:

How you look at the card and think it will grade (based on others online) is most likely different than how a professional will grade it. Keep your hopes on the conservative side and if you do get lucky, great, because you won't be disappointed if it grades lower like an EX5 when you expect a NM7.

 

[99MustangGTman]

Thanks for the help guys. To be be completely honest I want the 1959 card authenticated/graded not to sell. $300-$500 is nice, but I have other alternative sources of income besides my main one. What I really want to do, along with many other cards I have is to pass it on. My Dad meant everything to me and I would love to share something my Dad was passionate about with the next generation in my family. Who knows, maybe it will increase in value by then. I'm hoping if I pass it on and the card being graded, maybe gives the next in my bloodline will keep it, or that would make them want to sell it more. By then i'll be long gone and it's just a material object anyways.

I remember when my Dad gave me his Bulova from 1968 when I turned 31, since he bought the watch when he was 31. The watch is a mechanical hand-wind and at the time my Dad gave it to me, I didn't really like it at all. It was a square shape, and all gold. Now that my Dad is no longer with me, I cherish the special things that he held close. The Bulova he gave me has his full initials on the caseback and funny enough, we share the exact same initials.

I own a bunch of watches like Breitling, Omegas, Rolex, Nomos, Tutima, a few different Seikos, Hamilton, Tudor, Longines, TAG, Panerai, Ball, G-Shocks, RZE (such a versatile watch and light), Monta, Zelos, I bought a watch that is fully titanium, the Worldtimer by Tsao Baltimore, but they are slowly changing their name to Baltimore Watch Company. I really want a Grand Seiko, but i've spent too much on my car already.

Anyways, out of all those watches I cherish the Bulova and Rolex since they were both from my Dad

 

[Cobra Jet]

Found this thread while searching…

I have a bunch of Baseball cards that I had created a spreadsheet on then uploaded it to “Sports Cards Pro”.

I too also looked into PSA grading, but as was mentioned in this thread, it’s very expensive and turn around time is not fast. Plus as also mentioned, you would have to pick your “best” to be graded if you’re on a budget to expense for the PSA grading. Sure, not everyone grades just to get a value for resale, but it’s definitely helpful for insuring high dollar cards and or collections,

When you upload your collection to SCP, it also sends you email updates every so often to show any +/- in value changes to your entire collection that was uploaded. You can also select the “grade” of what you have when you upload the collection or cards, so the updated values will always be based on your chosen “grade” as sent in.

For me, I don’t have the time or the cash to pay for PSA grading. However, my entire collection has been in boxes or the plastic sleeves where they are not damaged, etc. I’m sure what I have could be worth more if PSA graded.

I always think of just selling the whole lot, because it just sits around. I don’t have anything from the early years, it’s all late 80’s early 90’s, but based on SCP valuation it’s a decent amount of $$ for just “paper”.

SCP isn’t just for Baseball cards either, they do many other valuations on other collectibles.