If you got started collecting in the 1980’s you might have kept some of your prized sports cards encased in what is commonly known as a screw-down holder. 

When protecting your cards starting becoming paramount in the ’80s the screw-down holder was viewed as the premier way to encase your card.  What better way to keep your card safe than holding it together with a big, gigantic piece of plastic held together with four tight screws.  

Although it used to be the preferred way of protecting valuable cards, screw down holders can cause significant damage to sports cards.  The pressure applied from the tightening of the screws can flatten out the card over time. 

This can make it appear as if the card has been altered, and the grading companies will often reject cards stored in screwdown holders, returning them as ‘Altered’.  

Card grading has completely changed the hobby in the last decade.  While there have been some hiccups, a more standardized system has led to a more uniform and liquid market for cards. 

Most newer collectors think that they need to send in all of their cards for grading to maximize value, but this isn’t necessarily always the case.  

Collectors should certainly engage in self-grading their own cards.  The more one can become educated in the process of how grading works, the better-equipped one will be to decide whether to spend the money for card grading. 

And as more and more collectors become efficient in grading cards, the more accepted it might be to buy and sell ungraded (or raw) cards. 

Unfortunately, despite becoming an efficient grader, an ungraded card still tends to sell for less than any card that has been graded by a third-party grading company such as PSA, SGC, or Beckett.

The last few years in the sports card market have been to say at the very least- a bit crazy.  Sports card grading has exploded, driven by a surge in values for both vintage and modern cards. 

This surge can largely be explained by increased speculation and greed, fueled by the advent of card breaks, flippers, investors, and the like. 

A global pandemic seemed to stoke the fire even further as bored, work from home collectors sought refuge in the hobby.  Stimulus checks seemed to keep it all afloat, although as the economy has started to reopen, there do appear to be some kinks in the armor. 

Through it all, the card grading companies have been beyond overwhelmed—PSA in an April letter to its followers, said that it had received more submissions in three days than it had in the previous three months.   Even SGC had said that over the course of a 24 hour span, the number of cards submitted to SGC for grading increased by over 500%. 

The deluge of grading requests forced PSA to halt all submissions below its Super Express ($300) grading level effectively putting a pause button on things to help its graders get caught up.   Along the way, PSA also hiked prices for all of its grading services, thus, once operations resume (expected in July) it will cost collectors $50 to grade a card (unless it is submitted in a bulk value or grading special submission).

PSA has pretty much shut down grading unless you want to submit at the $300 level

I’d say one of the most common stumbling blocks I encounter when speaking with novice (and even more experienced) collectors concerns shipping sports cards.

For someone that hasn’t sent a valuable card through the mail, the process can be a bit of a daunting experience.  However, once you do it a few times, it becomes a fairly simple and easily repeatable process.

I put this guide together to help fellow collectors and to provide some further instructions on shipping sports cards.  This guide will cover supplies needed in order to ship your cards, how properly package your cards, along with different methods of shipping and how the process might vary if sending to any third-party graders.  

If you have any questions on this, feel free to leave a message in the comments section, or as always feel free to shoot us an email at help@allvintagecards.com

I was only 9 years old when I started collecting back in 1985. I got a few packs of 1985 Topps and was hooked; as a kid that loved baseball, those little pieces of cardboard were everything to me.

I was obsessed right away and it consumed my entire being, ranging from riding my bike three miles to the nearest baseball card store and setting up tables in my basement for a ‘baseball card show’ amongst friends.

My brother soon opened a baseball card store and I was quickly thrown into battle as a high schooler peddling cards and negotiating purchases. I lived through the peak of the ‘Junk Era’ in which cards were massively overproduced, yet at the time, I didn’t grasp the realities of what was happening with the values of cards.

I returned to the hobby several years after college and slowly started getting interested in cards again –which ultimately led to the launch of ‘All Vintage Cards’. 

I’ve discussed my thoughts about the current market exhibiting signs of being in bubble territory, but this time I wanted to examine the current market environment in relation to the last big card bubble from the 1990s.  

While I lived through it, I sort of always chalked up the bursting card bubble to overproduction but figured there had to be more to it. 

Thus, I went into the archives, did some more extensive research, and spoke to other people in the hobby. 

Thus, here are the results of my exploration into the sports card bubble from the 90s’.   

Note, if you lived through it and have a different perspective, or if you just want to leave your thoughts on my findings, please leave a comment!

It’s widely accepted that the only three major card graders in the hobby are PSA, SGC and Beckett.  

There have been many upstart graders over the years but those are the main three that are still standing strong.  

Still, we have many cards in circulation from other now defunct grading companies. I get questions from collectors all the time asking if they should trust so and so card in such and such holder they found on eBay.

So, I thought it would be helpful for collectors to have a ‘Sports Card Grading Graveyard’ where we list out old card graders and whether or not their slabs/grades should be trusted.  

Thus, this list is a collection of our experience with other grading companies along with our research sourcing opinions from other websites such as the Net54 Forums and Blowout Forums (both unbelievable resources).

Sports card values have been on an unworldly increase of late. 

The rise has given credence to the belief that sports cards should be earmarked for collectors as a part of their overall investment portfolio.  

And I certainly have advocated that cards should be thought of as an entirely distinct asset class, separate from stocks, bonds, art, etc. 

Yet, the hysteria of late has me moderately concerned; I’m noticing signs that indicate we may be in the midst of another asset bubble in the sports card world.  

In this piece I discuss some of my concerns regarding card prices, some of the red flags that I’ve noticed and where we might go from here. 

As always if you have any thoughts on the current state of the hobby–please comment below or feel free to email me at chris@allvintagecards.com

I’ve had the unfortunate experience of breaking the news to many eBay buyers that the card they spent multiple thousands of dollars on was a fake.

Thankfully eBay has strong buyer protection rules in place along with PayPal guarantees and options to dispute the transaction through your credit card company.  Thus, many of the buyers I’ve spoken to have been able to recover their funds.  

Still, I really hope that eBay can develop a program for sports cards, similar to what they have done with sneakers and watches.  

Despite this, I decided that I should create a guide to help buyers protect themselves from the most unscrupulous of eBay sellers. 

eBay does a good job of shutting down fake listings if enough people complain, but often times many fall through the cracks.  

Note that eBay does require that any cards that have a questionable authenticity be listed as a reprint, yet buyers are still bidding up these cards thinking they’ve found a diamond in the rough.

This guide will help you avoid these mistakes and help you become a better-informed buyer when purchasing sports cards on eBay. 

One of the most frequent questions we get from novice collectors is in regards to the ‘Authentic’ grade from third party grading companies.

It’s confusing, since we automatically assume a card we get graded is authentic to begin with; thus why does a grading company label a card as solely ‘Authentic’ with no numerical grade (from 1 to 10)?  And then ‘Authentic Altered’…what’s the difference between the two?

Simply put, an ‘Authentic’ grade means that the grading company identified something wrong with the card, usually an alteration or some other major defect, which prohibited them from assigning a numerical grade to the card.  

In what follows, we will examine some of the nuances of ‘Authentic’ graded cards and why they are graded that way.  Hopefully this will help clear up some of the confusion.

Be also sure to check out our piece on ‘How To Spot a Trimmed Card’ which talks more about grading and trimming. 

One of the most intimidating situations can occur when a loved one leaves you a collection of valuable baseball cards.

For many, the cards represent a piece of their family member, and selling it can bring up a whole range of mixed emotions.

In addition to the emotions involved, if you’ve never bought a pack of baseball cards, inheriting a valuable sports card collection can certainly be an overwhelming situation. 

Sometimes the collection isn’t worth as much as you might have expected, although there are times when the value of the inherited collection exceeds all expectations. 

This resource will walk you through the different options for evaluating the inherited collection, including how to determine values, how to sell the card collection or holding onto the cards and safely storing them.  

Always feel free to reach out to me at chris@allvintagecards.com with any questions.