[huttymddu@gmail.com]

I am a neophyte, not a collector, but have a collection of about 4200 cards from 1969 thru 1983. I organized them over the last few months after having them for 40 years. I am considering submitting a few cards for grading. 

I've read as much as I can about grading, and looked at countless cards on ebay and forums. I organized them all and uploaded them into the Beckett organize system.  None of the cards are graded. I was thinking of taking 10 cards and submitting. (Ex: 76 Schmidt, Jackson, 72 Clemente, Yaz)

When submitting how do you determine the value of the card, especially if you've never done it before?  Go with your best guess?  Any info and direction is welcomed.

[bonds20001]

I look over the card with magnification to determine if there are any obvious flaws that would reduce the grade..like rounded corner, scuffs, centering, scratches etc..it is not fool proof but may make it easier to decide not to send a flawed card.

The older cards. 1950-1970 are harder to find with just 1 flaw..newer cards need to be near perfect for me to spend $$ for grading.

Good luck..

[huttymddu@gmail.com]

I look over the card with magnification to determine if there are any obvious flaws that would reduce the grade..like rounded corner, scuffs, centering, scratches etc..it is not fool proof but may make it easier to decide not to send a flawed card.

The older cards. 1950-1970 are harder to find with just 1 flaw..newer cards need to be near perfect for me to spend $$ for grading.

Good luck..

Thanks I should look for what I think are near perfect cards as send with the higher value then?

[jbissell]

Yeah I think that's your best course of action. Also, if you find what you feel is a perfect or near perfect mid range card, a high grade would significantly raise the value to closer to a high end card.

[huttymddu@gmail.com]

thank you for the reply and info.

[mcb0419]

thank you for the reply and info.

There are a couple of non-eBay sites you can use to gauge prices too. I found 130point.com a month or so ago and its pretty useful because it gives you the sales prices for eBay auctions that ended with Best Offers too. And if you didn't know this about search logic: you can use the - sign to exclude items from your search. For instance if you have a 2001 Topps Traded Pujols and want to estimate value without having to wade through Topps Chrome also, you can type "2001 Topps Pujols -chrome" if you want to exclude any chrome cards, or you could do "2001 Topps Pujols psa 9 -chrome" to see how much PSA 9 2001 Topps Traded Pujols are going for

[huttymddu@gmail.com]

thanks will try out 130point.com to determine some market values of cards I am considering to send for grading.