PSA grading hackrs

Anyone ever send a card in to PSA for grading? My grandma gave me my grandpas old baseball cards after he passed and there’s a 1953 Mickey mantle card in there. Not in the best condition. I’m guessing a 1. Maybe 1.5 grade. I’m just confused how to pick a declared value for the process. Do I pick regular or express? I don’t know what the card is going to be graded as so I’m not sure what the value will be. I looked at the recently sold on eBay and value can be anywhere between $1000-$2300 depending on grade 1- grade 1.5





I know nothing, but I’d think you could pick regular no matter the value, just that it needs to be worth at least 1499 to actually get express. Of course, if you pay express and they feel it is worth 1400, what happens?

There are card shops out there that can give you an estimated grading before you submit. So at least you have an idea to do express or not.

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Yea that’s my thought as well. I tried calling but every day I call, their call back queue is full for the day and it just hangs up lol. I’m guessing if I picked express and it wasn’t worth that, they’d refund me the difference for regular?

I was just looking for trading card shops near me and I found one 20 minutes away but they’re closed today. I will try calling tomorrow. Thanks!

Are you really in that kind of a rush? Just pay the regular fee, IMO. I’d never pay the additional amount, personally. Unless maybe I needed bail money? I dunno.

AFAIK – if its not a 9 or 10, then it’s not worth sending in. Turnaround time is crazy long right now, so it’s better to just post it for sale (if thats what you want to do) as not-mint condition. Just show the flaws, its an old card. People who want to have a Mantle card are out there, and values are easily searched. Sending it in wouldn’t be something I’d do in your position, but to each their own.

I’m in no rush. I’ve actually had the card for five months and just never got around to sending it in. When I was first checking psa when I got the cards turnaround time was over 120 days. Now I see it’s 10. It’s probably not worth sending it in but I’ll probably just keep it and give it to my son

Looks better than a 1 to me, but what do I know… Really cool though!

If you get the estimation wrong they will just upgrade to the cost of the proper level of service. Rule of thumb is to always estimate low, so I would go with regular. That said, even at PSA 1 this card should be closer to $2000 then $1500. This is what a PSA 1 looks like:

I would put yours closer to a 2, which puts it’s value around $3000.

In any case, it’s definitely worth grading, but if you want to save some $$ look into CSG; https://www.csgcards.com/submit/services-fees/csg/

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This ain’t Pokémon cards. Even at a 1 or 2, that card is ridiculously valuable. Get it graded. Like above, they will charge you based on what it gets graded at. I don’t think you can go wrong with regular or express.

Selling it raw just means leaving money on the table.

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I think the those cards are a 1.5 based on this guide. Could easily be a two though.

Crazy how much changes in eight years. My father has a bunch of 1961 Topps cards. For a 1961 Mantle, father would need to be in the 6-7 grading range to be worth as much as a 1953 Mantle graded as a 1 or 2.

Right now we are debating what to do with this “family heirloom” which has been sitting in the same filing cabinet since my parents moved into their house in 1990. Local dealer estimated his cards to be 7-8 in quality. At 8 it makes sense for us to get most of them graded. At 7, it would probably only make sense to do the best ones like mantle, Clemente, Koufax.

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Thanks for the advice everyone. I dropped the card off today at USPS and is on its way to PSA. Will update the thread when I get the card back. Thanks!

If you have a potential PSA 7 Mantle sitting there, you need to get that graded NOW!! Only newer cards I’ll hold are low numbered autos. Have a ton of sealed wax that I have to sit on now because prices have dropped so much.

What’s the best place to get values on my old Jordan basketball cards ? Probably have 100 or so in plastic. Is it still Beckett?

Beckett is a fine place to start but unless they are rookie cards in mint condition they probably aren’t worth much. There were just so many cards printed in the 1980s and 1990s. I have Rookie cards for a number of baseball HOFers in probably PSA 9 condition that are worth 20-30 bucks.

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Mostly Jordan’s from the 90’s. Maybe a few shaq’s/Kobe’s sprinkled in. I remember quite a few of them being 1 out of 5xxx so I’ll have to see what they fetch now.

If they’re not his main rookie 86 Fleer card then they’re not worth grading.

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I came across these in my garage the other day from when i was a kid


Seems like they sell in the $500ish range based on sold ebay comps. I keep debating if theyre worth grading. Im sure it wouldnt be a huge roi.

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Corners are probably ruined being in those, still cool cards though.